Update 2

This guy didn’t know how to dress for an interview. We all jumped in and gave our opinion. Here’s what happened:

I went with your advice and wore dress slacks, a tie and sport coat. It seemed to be fine. All of the interviews (which were panel type, me and 3-4 people at a time) were at the actual biomedical device production facility. Most people I interviewed with were wearing their normal job wear, khakis (or even jeans) and polo type short sleeve shirts. I was somewhat more formally dressed than those I spoke with but it wasn’t so much that I felt out of place. I felt comfortable and the interviews went very well. Ultimately, I wasn’t offered the job, one of the other candidates had significantly more industry experience and they went with them. Thanks for the advice all the same!

This person wasn’t sure if he had technically quit or was fired. Was unemployment a possibility? Here’s what happened:

Okay, my update, I did not apply for UE. Sure the extra money would be nice but there was a lot I did not tell you, that really had nothing to do with the specific question. I’m north of fifty and have worked since about eighteen and saved the entire time. When I took on my job before this last one I was asking about, I was at the previous position a quarter of a century. I say it in those terms because as a major US corporation I took advantage of the savings and investment plan, they offered and at the time they actually had a pension plan. My wife too was doing the same thing.

Imagine that!

We do not live outside our means and feel that we are very lucky to be where we are. Many may say that luck had nothing to do with it and okay, that may be true. I decided that since we are where we are in life and did not have to do any “reprogramming of my brain, so to speak, we can sleep in, work on the side, stick my hands in the dirt, yell at the cats, make a big lunch (diet), take a walk, use my camera, call friends, visit friends, volunteer doing something, write nice HR Ladies, take pictures, do more wine tasting, just about anything.

I did not want to deal with bosses, lunch breaks, time off, vacations, schedule changes, break rooms, fighting for the computer, fighting for the bathroom, status reports, meetings, clean out the back room, take out the trash, just stuff, you know?

This person received an unfair performance review.

At this time, I am still at the company but I am on maternity leave and I am interviewing. I do not want to go back. They did not change my ratings and HR backed my boss and told me its his boss’s problem that he is not qualified, not mine.

They are/were afraid that I was going to sue because I was pregnant when all of this went down and it was a 180 on the part of my boss from my last review (or since I had kids). Our relationship has only gotten worse. In my last few weeks there before my leave I had to tell my CEO to tell him to leave me alone as he was stressing me and my baby! They told him to leave me alone.

In sum, going to HR was a waste of time except that it put me on their radar as a potential lawsuit. Would not advise. The only solution I see is to move on if your job sucks and that is what I hope to do.

This person had an out of town boss and the need to resign.

Last year I had to resign my position while my boss was out of town. I followed your advice and resigned by phone, apologizing profusely that I could not do it in person. He was surprised, maybe perturbed, but by the next time I saw him he was over it. We remain on good terms and he’s been an excellent reference for me.

Later that week there was a big layoff at the company. I’m glad I was able to give the management warning and I hope I saved someone’s job by leaving.

This person had a fabulous admin and didn’t know what developmental goals to give:

I needed to find two “development goals” for my receptionist. You suggested that I ask her, and suggested that she might like to take some courses. Bingo! I explained what was going on, and asked her what she thought she would like to work on. She wants to take courses, and she wants to go through old files in her desk area in order to discard or transport to offsite storage. She’s been wanting to do that for a while and just needed to know that it was okay to spend time on it. I said, of course, by all means. So crisis averted, we have goals to work on this year and a strategy to find goals going forward. As a PS, one of the commenters chastised me for “ageism” for focusing on her age, and I, duly spanked, took that to heart. Thanks to all