Quitting because you didn't get promoted.

I would definitely keep the job while you look.

 

Or you could find someone rich, like a doctor, and marry him...

 

Direct hit, captain.

 

FJ, I don't want to feed paranoia, but that conversation does not play in your favor. If ass-hat is in preschooler's corner, one or both of them are now keeping score on how many times you cut your eyes the wrong way at them. I've worked a job in compliance reporting, and while I don't believe all of the stories are true, I do believe there are too many of them for none of them to be true, and I've heard this one hundreds of times. I have no reason not to believe you, however, and my advice would be to keep as low a profile as you can while ferreting out the next job. The checks may keep coming, but this one is over. You're in damage control now, and you need to keep telling yourself that you're not going to let these idiots screw up your finances, and let that be the driving force to govern your behavior. Also, the advice of documenting is spot-on. Carry a recorder with you and record every conversation you have with them. I know that sounds very cloak and dagger, but I'm serious; I'd bet you're about to get harassed.

Again, I'm sorry to foster any paranoia, but if a company or a manager wants someone to quit, there are a litany of ways it achieves that goal. Dispense with any thoughts like, "I don't want to give him the satisfaction," or "they won't beat me." What matters is you take care of your own house by getting another job and walking away. That's the only way you win.

One last thing: When you do get the next job, make sure you put some raw shrimp in the base of ass-hat's chair.

 

FJ,

I'll echo Novelist Wannabe's sentiments. Call it Survival Mode ... keep a low profile, ramp up the search for the next job and until you get the offer and a starting date, continue working your current job.

Given the current economy, going without should be the absolute last resort. You said you were frustrated, and I think many of us on the board have been there, whether in a newsroom or at some job during or immediately after graduating from school.

I was going to leave one paper because I was fed up, maybe as much as you feel right now. But I stayed, continued to look around for the right job and it happened about six months after I almost walked out. Kept drawing checks, learned what little I could about my predicament at the time - if nothing else I was going to remember that so I could experience the really good times alter - and didn't have the resume gap and half-baked explanation behind it.

Hang in there, FJ. We're here if you need to vent.

 

FJ. . .

First off, keep the job until you get another one. It is much easier to get a job while employed than find something when you are not. There is a stigma to unemployment that managers apply, wanting to know why you don't have a job.

Regain your composure (you are soooo better than that) and don't let the little shit bother you. When you get a good opportunity to talk to the other manager, ask him what it would take for you to be part of management or let him know of your interest.

If the new guy is such an ass hat, then he will get his soon enough. Being somebody's friend will only go so far. Sooner or later he will have to perform and if he is pissing off all of the staff with his attitude, then upper management will get sick of hearing it.

Don;t let your disappointment show. Be the better person.

That and of course, find another job where they will recognize your value and treat you well.

 

As someone who is in the same boat as you, FJ...

Keep.
Your.
Job.

A paycheck every two weeks, no matter how meager, is a paycheck. In talking with a good friend who is SE of the rival newspaper, he told me (when I was considering quitting without a job) that if he ever saw gaps on a resume, he just passed it to the other side of the desk and didn't give it a second look.

Keep on keepin' on with the job search. When one comes along, think about how good it will be to napalm that bridge. I've already got the dynamite set up along the banks of my bridge and look forward to the day when I can bomb it. But until I find that job...so it sits.

 

life's too short. do what you gotta do to make yourelf happy.

 

cookies?

 

Corky and everyone else who advised you to keep the job for the time being are correct.

And on a side note, the SE who ignores all resumes with gaps is being too clever for his own good with that pat philosophy. Life happens- deaths, births, divorces, marriages, moves, illnesses, families, whatever. Sometimes life's events mean that something is a bigger deal than work.

There's a school of thought that insists people do nothing else but jump on the idiot treadmill immediately upon graduation and scurry like meth-crazed hamsters, with only the annual shitty two-week vacation as respite, until the marketplace has used us up and we're too decrepit to turn a buck (or do anything else except drool in front of the TV for a few years before death). This murderous philosophy is both foolish and ethically repugnant.

Finally, there's one other thing a gap on a resume could indicate- honesty.

 

I've been passed over before for someone less qualified. In fact, I was told by the hiring editor that he was less qualified. I wanted to quit on the spot, but I didn't. Like everyone else has said, keep the job you have now but look for a new one.

Sounds like this doesn't apply in your case, but I also kept in mind that the guy who was hired over me didn't deserve any scorn from me. I kept my anger limited to the hiring manager. The guy who was hired over me is actually one of my better friends now.