As discussed in my last post, I'm leaving my current job. I have surprised myself with how motivated I've been despite all of the aggravation I expressed previously, but I have accomplished a lot in this last week and think that I have maintained my good reputation with my team.
In an effort to maintain that motivation, I read a few articles on the importance of not checking out in your last few weeks in a job. One of the driving factors for me was definitely my reputation. I like to leave things better than I found them, and have accomplished that in many of my past jobs. My problem with the articles is that this expectation of maintaining a professional reputation does not go both ways. The leaving employee is expected to continue to be as reliable, hard-working, and dedicated as they were when they first got the job, which is fine. However, nowhere in any article that I read did the writer encourage the same for the soon-to-be former boss.
I can understand that, in some ways, the decision to leave may feel like a reflection on the boss. Truthfully, up until about six months ago, I really loved my boss. He asked me at one point to let him know if I was starting to look elsewhere so he would have a heads up when I was leaving, and I honored that when the interviews started rolling in. While there had been certain changes in his behavior before then, what my husband has referred to as "microaggressions," they were covert and not something I paid much attention to. I might have waved it off as he had a bad day or something. After I first gave him a heads up that I was interviewing, he seemed to distance himself from me.
When I first started, my mentor told me that in the group I had joined, they really encouraged people to find their passions and to pursue other avenues if the work they were doing wasn't what they wanted. I suppose for her, and our group director, that is true. But my boss has been a real jerk since I told him I was leaving, as I mentioned in my last post.
One article I read mentioned how your boss might be dragged before his boss to find out why you're leaving and may disparage your character to save their own skin. I don't believe this happened in my situation; however, I do wonder if my boss' failure to maintain communication with me over projects and such that the group director wanted me to do contributed to his getting hauled into the director's office. I told my boss, and my mentor, that I wanted to do more policy related work. My boss did mention a few projects during one of our touchbases, but after that, it was crickets. We were supposed to meet biweekly but I think most of our meetings were cancelled in my last few months because of time constraints or him being out of the office.
The article also mentions the recruiting process being difficult, and that actually makes more sense for my situation. Honestly, I don't know many people who would want to do the work we do. We basically take the information and data found on audit and analyze it for an enforcement action. There's a bit of auditing necessary, some legal aspects, but it's not really audit work and it's not really legal either. The closest thing I can compare it to is, well, law enforcement, except that instead of taking someone to jail, we might impose a sanction where we monitor an entity for a period of time. The goal is to help the entity improve their processes and correct whatever failures were found on audit. Our money penalties are like a fine or a speeding ticket, a really expensive speeding ticket. However, since it's all paperwork based, it's not exactly the same as an actual police officer.
Before I told my boss I was interviewing, he was trying to hire another PMF to join our team. The two he was interviewing both didn't work out. One cancelled the interview because she was offered another job and the other one, to whom he actually made an offer, turned it down. I later learned that the one who turned down the offer was somewhat naïve about what it means to work in government. She apparently waxed poetic about how she was going to change the world. My pseudo boss told me that I seemed more grounded, and I guess after 10 years of working in state government, I felt lucky if I could make small changes in my unit, let alone the world.
Most of the PMFs from my class wanted to work at State or USAID, and even if they didn't want to work at those big agencies, they wanted to work in policy. I recall many of my fellow PMFs discussing their spreadsheet hierarchy of the positions they were looking to obtain. Some had "A" and "B" list agencies or positions. I had a very simple goal: to find a position, any position, in the federal government. I actually was offered 3 positions: a budget analyst at DOL, a position at SBA that I don't recall the title, and the job I accepted. I also almost was offered a job at OMB, but I received my onboard date shortly after that interview and after I let them know, they advertised the position for which I was being considered.
My point is, there are a limited number of people who would actually enjoy doing this work. I took this job because it was a foot in the door with the feds. I recall telling my old state coworker that I could do any job for three years (I didn't realize you could apply for other jobs as career conditional, but I ended up being here for three years anyway). For someone who enjoys analyzing data and really getting into the nitty gritty, an auditing or financial position may better suit them. A lawyer or paralegal would likely prefer more litigation or appellate work, even if the appeal is to an administrative law judge. Since I've been there, someone has left at least once a year. In my first six months, two people left. Another person only lasted a year and left at the end of 2020, and then the last person before me left in April of this year (though she'd been on detail since October). The other problem is that they don't always replace the people who leave. When the second person left within six months of my start date, they didn't replace him. Then after the 2020 person left, they didn't replace her either (though I think they were planning to replace her with a PMF). Now, they have three positions to fill, but they'll probably only fill one or two of them.
While I can understand that my boss is probably frustrated with having to find more people to hire and train, I still don't think it's fair that I am expected to maintain my integrity while he can do a complete 180 in his treatment of me. I had this happen with a previous attorney I worked with, and our relationship was never the same. Unfortunately, it is a bridge burned, and while I did not light that match, I didn't try to put out the flames either. I'd hate to see that happen here. The article I linked above leaves the questioner with this piece of advice: "Just make sure that you handle your resignation as professionally as possibly. Make a plan to transition your work to your co-workers and stay positive. Your boss will get over your resignation. You'll need that boss for a recommendation later, so play nice right up until the end, regardless of the reaction you got."
This is my problem. Of course, I'm going to "play nice" and do my job, but at the same time, I can't help but see the double standard. I know it's not necessarily common practice, with privacy issues and what not, but what if a future PMF finds out that I used to work in this division and looks me up? We do network, as I spoke with one who was considering my agency. And as this article points out, the former employee also has the ability to blast the company on various social media sites where people research the culture and experience of former employees. I also liked that this article states: "If you make people feel like they’re dispensable, the damage runs far and deep." I know in the articles warning departing employees not to check out, they point out that you never know when you might have to work with your boss and/or coworkers again, but doesn't that go both ways? I don't plan to return to this division or even this area of my agency, but that doesn't mean that one day I won't need to work with these people again. It's going to be awkward and uncomfortable for everyone if it happens.
Bottom line, while it sucks to lose an employee, everyone should try to remain professional. To steal a line from Bridesmaids: "Why can't you be happy for me, and then go home and talk about me behind my back like a normal person?" I don't encourage bad mouthing or gossip, but go vent to your family/friends if you need to, lament the loss, but don't take it out on the employee. Clearly, it wouldn't be such a huge blow or loss if that employee sucked, so don't make them regret the time they spent working for you. And as the last article I shared said, remember that your other employees are watching.
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