I've decided I NEED to quit my job

[shardian]

do not, I repeat do not give your boss a heads up.  It may seem like the sensible/honest/good samiritan thing to do,  but in today's world loyalty ain't what it used to be. He may be your buddy, your homey, your compadre but at the end of the day they wouldn't give you a heads up if they're looking to replace you. Let's assume your boss is a good guy. You tell him that you're looking.  He keeps it under his hat.  When assignments that could lead to outside work/better opportunities arise he can't give it to you because you might be beatin feet soon.  When it comes times for raises he can't give you what you're due.  He may have to throw a few extra bones somewhere else.  He might say Shar's on his way out, I have to compensate Jim because I can't afford to lose him too.

My Sup is not my Boss. It's complicated, so I'll break it down.

Supervisor (AKA: Unofficial boss): He's the unofficial design manager. Officially, he's just a designer like me. He is a super nice guy who gets the bend over treatment on a much more frequent basis than me. He keeps me out of trouble, as I get all of the mission impossibles that cross his desk. I've gotten hints here and there that he has considered leaving. I know he hates his job and the BS he has to put up with. He has a houseful of kids though, with several entering college and a new house. He ain't going anywhere.

Boss: He is the Design Manager. He is a year or two from retirement, and doesn't do much of anything anymore. He's a little quirky, but overall a nice guy. He only gets pissed when he gets an ass-ripping from...

The President (AKA Big Boss): Here lies the problems for everything. He's temperamental, and is old school in his beliefs. He's hated me every since I took off for the three weeks of my son's life. He has always resented me for that. I also was in the office off and on for our second child, because the wife spent weeks at a time in the hospital.
Everyone in this place has gotten an ass-ripping for something stupid at some point or another. I've gotten warnings from day one that he can be a nice guy, then just explode over something stupid one day. Everyone is terrified of the guy, including my official and unofficial bosses. I'm not, and there-in lies another problem he has with me. (That and I have beat him in our office sports pools several times) - I've been warned I shouldn't do that too. ) His presence and attitude acts like a poison to the whole office.

[shardian]

...which is only half as loud as the voice that says "what if you never find a job and your kid has to experience living in your car for a while".  That's the one that drives me to constantly take the conservative route even when I want to start cockpunching stupid coworkers.  I do have to say, though, that my current employer is pretty reasonable for the most part, even when the work cycle swings to long hours.

Oh, that voice is loud and clear too. A couple from our church just up and moved to frikkin Alaska last year - no reason, they just wanted to say the did something like that. We have been so jealous of them for having the stones to make that huge move.

I would love to take a job in some other state far away from here. All of the unknowns scare the hell out of me though. What happens if the job or area don't work out and we are stuck there? Things like that.
I just have this overwhelming urge to do something drastic to "wake up" our lives. I guess I can call this my "Quarterlife crisis".

[ClubNinja]

Quarterlife crisis.  Think I'm right along with you there.

[knave]

I've gotten warnings from day one that he can be a nice guy, then just explode over something stupid one day. Everyone is terrified of the guy, including my official and unofficial bosses.

Sounds like a hostile work environment.  Arn't there legal protections against this sort of thing.

At my work it's also against policy so we have actually had managers removed for acting like this. Ass reaming is not allowed. 

[ChadTower]

Quarterlife crisis.  Think I'm right along with you there.

You're always ten years ahead of schedule, though.  Maybe this is shardian's thirdlife crisis?  I know I don't have 120 years in me.

[CheffoJeffo]

do not, I repeat do not give your boss a heads up.  It may seem like the sensible/honest/good samiritan thing to do,  but in today's world loyalty ain't what it used to be.

I agree with what myntik1 says, but mostly because loyalty is EXACTLY what it used to be.

By this I mean that your boss (official or unofficial) has a primary loyalty (wrt to things that affect the company) to the company (and everybody there) -- any personal loyalty to you is secondary.

If you give a heads up, he SHOULD act in the best interests of the company, which may well run contrary to yours.

[shmokes]

And yeah, I think I'll just keep riding this out until something else pops up.

Goddamnit Shardian!  There's almost no such thing in life as something else "popping up."  Ride this out?  ---fudgesicle--- that.  Riding out suggests that you are on something with an end.  You need to find another job.  Actively.  Get on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, but more importantly, start looking actively.  Start taking your resume to places that aren't hiring.  LOOK ON CRAIG'S LIST RIGHT NOW!  Whatchoo mean you aren't going to find another job?  Do you really believe that this company is the only one in need of someone with your skills?  It isn't.  Find that job out-of-state.  You've got the safety-net money to keep you afloat during the transition (of course, get the job first). 

[shardian]

And yeah, I think I'll just keep riding this out until something else pops up.

Goddamnit Shardian!  There's almost no such thing in life as something else "popping up."  Ride this out?  ---fudgesicle--- that.  Riding out suggests that you are on something with an end.  You need to find another job.  Actively.  Get on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, but more importantly, start looking actively.  Start taking your resume to places that aren't hiring.  LOOK ON CRAIG'S LIST RIGHT NOW!  Whatchoo mean you aren't going to find another job?  Do you really believe that this company is the only one in need of someone with your skills?  It isn't.  Find that job out-of-state.  You've got the safety-net money to keep you afloat during the transition (of course, get the job first). 

Whoah, time out there Tweek. I never said anything about abandoning my search. I've already been actively searching. I plan on calling the gas company first thing next week to see if they will be hiring again soon.

By popping up, I mean a job popping up in my daily searches. I wish a job would just fall in my lap. I'd have to be pretty delusional to expect that to happen.

[Level42]

... He's hated me every since I took off for the three weeks of my son's life. He has always resented me for that. I also was in the office off and on for our second child, because the wife spent weeks at a time in the hospital.
Everyone in this place has gotten an ass-ripping for something stupid at some point or another. I've gotten warnings from day one that he can be a nice guy, then just explode over something stupid one day. Everyone is terrified of the guy, including my official and unofficial bosses. I'm not, and there-in lies another problem he has with me. (That and I have beat him in our office sports pools several times) - I've been warned I shouldn't do that too. ) His presence and attitude acts like a poison to the whole office.

He sounds like a major ---uvula---. I hope he will get into a situation like that one time and think about it. I've experienced what it can be like. My son was in hospital for three weeks for his heart surgery. The last thing I was thinking about was my work. Really. It just is not important. If you have your talents, you can always get a job. I've been out of a job twice because of company bankrupcy and lay-offs. I had another job within weeks both times. Of course I was a bit younger then, but still, companies are crying for good people (at least over here still).

My brother once walked out of job from one moment to the other. He had a terrible argument with his boss, who he had been working for for 6 years, and was more like a friend to him.

Within 2 days he was called by the competition and hired (and a much better job too). That's nice if you have contacts in the business.

Two of my job changes brought me a (much) worse job/company then I had before. The other times, things simply got better. You never know. But sometimes you have to take a risk in life.

Nothing in life is certain.
Once you realise that, and accept it, you will be (and feel) more in control. It's not "them" deciding. It's you !

[shmokes]

Shardian, can you read this?

[shardian]

Shardian, can you read this?

Yes.

[shmokes]

Heh . . . I just noticed someone is ignoring me, and wondered if the double-whammy of my soapbox in this thread and my position on spanking and child leashes pushed you over the edge.   

I guess it'll remain a mystery.

[shardian]

Heh . . . I just noticed someone is ignoring me, and wondered if the double-whammy of my soapbox in this thread and my position on spanking and child leashes pushed you over the edge.   

I guess it'll remain a mystery.

hehe. It wasn't me. Carry on with the soap boxing. It is entertaining at the least.

[Dartful Dodger]

Heh . . . I just noticed someone is ignoring me

Thanks for pointing that out.  I haven't been to the Forum Discussion section in while.  I knew you could ignore, I didn't know you could see you were being ignored.

I have 2.

Too bad you can't see how many times it’s been turned off and on.  At least we have the satisfaction of knowing they’re jumping through hoops to read our messages.

<edit 1>

HA HA!

I just checked again, just in case you could click on the number for more information and it now says 3, which means one of those clowns just turned it off to read this post!

<edit 2>

My mistake the above edit didn't make sense.  they must have had it off to read one of my other posts and turned it on after reading it.

Which means that guy will turn it off again just to read this useless post.

[AtomSmasher]

Just thought I'd mention this thread has inspired me to learn asp and web programming in general in order to help me get a new job in web programming.  As some of you might remember I'm a real estate appraiser and am my own boss, which is great when theres work, but things have been extremely slow for the past year and every analyst I've read about so far thinks this year will be pretty much the same as last year.  I barely scraped by last year and if this year is the same as last, then I'll be royally screwed around November.  I've tried pretty hard to keep it going (marketing, meeting with the local clients, creating an online order and payment system to make things easier for clients, getting certified for more complex assignments), the problem is I can't get work that isn't there (a lot of my regular clients have gone out of business).

I've actually applied for a few computer and/or programming jobs in the past 6 months or so, but haven't gotten a new job yet (my guess is because of my lack of programming job experience in the past 5 years because I know I aced the programming tests a few of the job interviews had).

I've noticed most of the available computer jobs around here are in web programming (asp, php, ruby, etc.), so I figure learning web programming is the most sure fire way for me to find a new programming job in the next 6 months.  I learned C++, Java, etc. back in college, so I know a lot about programming, but I've never done any web or database programming, so this is pretty foreign to me.  I've already gone through a bunch of tutorials and am now building an order management website for my company.  It won't be too fancy, but it will be a recent example of a complex website for me to show off in job interviews, which should go a long way in helping me get a new job.