So I'm working my notice ...

They wouldn't give a shit where you went if THEY cut YOU.

Tell them "it's to pursue BETTER opportunities."

 

Right. Seeing how little these employers care about our futures, whether they're cutting us loose or just "gaming" scenarios where they cut us loose eventually, I feel no need to tell any of them what I'm going to be doing with my and my family's future. (If I were leaving on good terms with an individual boss, of course, or had just won the lottery, I'd be fine disclosing things.)

I have had editors who feel some stupid urge to disparage that next employer. One jackass actually scoffed and said to me, "I can hire as many people as I want from [Paper X]." Yeah, well, not me. Ass-wipe.

 

If you're going to another paper in the general area --- competitor or not --- chances are they're going to find out anyway. Eventually they're going to see your byline or someone from your previous staff will see you at a game or something. The word will get to them one way or another.

 

I'm pretty sure the whole two weeks' notice thing is a courtesy that has developed through time in the business world to be a "given." Which is odd, because corporations think nothing of making you work there for a month or three before it's a "given" they'll put you on their health insurance. They also don't pay you after you work; many have gone to either biweekly or monthly pay skeds that make you wait A LONG TIME after you've done the work for them to get your pay. Many of these same corporations that own these newspapers think nothing of announcing THAT DAY that this will be the last newspaper and, thus, your last day of working for them. Where's the two weeks' notice then? My advice is to treat them like they treat you. You are giving them two weeks of courtesy notice and you certainly don't owe them more than that. Just say you're off to pursue better opportunities. In this day and age, with so few newspaper jobs available, you don't want anyone with sour grapes to spoil anything in your new place. I'd just let it go and work hard until your last minute there.

 

You certainly do not have to tell them where you are heading. Tell them there's a confidentiality agreement in place (even if said agreement is between you and your imaginary friend). If where you worked was everyone's business, it would be listed in the phonebook after your home phone number. It's your business, you decide how, when or if others know.

 

That's exactly why they're asking. Be straight up and tell them if that's the case.

 

OK, dredging this up two months later sort of as a cautionary tale. The notice thing worked out fine. I didn't tell them. On the other hand, I left so mad I couldn't see straight. Before I get to that, it seems appropriate here to say that this wasn't a newspaper job. Writing I was doing on the side. Now, my last day, I'm doing my exit interview, and I ask about my accrued vacation. I'm told that unless the situation includes some very specific circumstances akin to the planets lining up straight, the company doesn't pay unused vacation time to departing employees. Policy, etc., etc. Then when my supervisor sends me my last time card, it includes my final month's bonus, which was not included on my final check. Again, policy. The two of them combined were, to me, a significant amount of money. Only now that I've been at my new shop for two months am I cooled off about it. Part of the reason for ire is it's on me. Shoulda read the employee handbook a little closer. Nonetheless, those are shitty things for employers to do to employees. So let my experience be a lesson to ye: Read the handbook and use it to plan accordingly. For me, it's just validation that I made the right choice.

 

I've never heard of a company not paying accrued vacation time when you leave. That is startling and shitty.

 

I'm in a right-to-work state. There's no law here that says they have to, and if they have written policy, they can do it. Yes, it is startling, and in my opinion, they're looking up at shitty. But I'm biased that way.

 

Next time, take a whole bunch of vacation and quit without notice.

 

I might be wrong, but if you take more vacation time than you have accrued, it'll come out of your last check. Not positive on that, though.

 

I'm in a right-to-work state and I was paid out my vacation time at my first newspaper job that I left to Pursue Other Interests. Granted, the company's HQ was in another state and they had papers a fair few other places, so it may've been internal policy.

My last newspaper job, I gave my notice and arranged to burn off my vacation time at the end of it. So I sat around my apartment and arranged my move during my last "week" on the job. I also gave like a month's notice, so they got their two weeks and then some out of me. My exit was very amicable, so I don't know if that'd work for everyone, but it was damn nice to have that time to get things in order.