How You Leave One Job, Is How You Start the Next

My son quit his job at Jimmy John’s. Well, technically anyway, as he was leaving one location to start working at a location closer to our home. He was nervous to talk to his boss, as he knew they were perennially understaffed. As parents committed to helping him succeed in life we insisted he do the right thing, suck up his fears, put his big boy pants on, and let his boss know, face to face, that he was putting in his two weeks’ notice. His manager’s reaction when he told her says everything you need to know about the state of our world today.

She looked at him confused. It turns out, in the two years this woman had been managing this Jimmy John’s sandwich shop, NOT A SINGLE EMPLOYEE HAD EVER PUT IN THEIR TWO WEEKS’ NOTICE!!! That’s shocking to me, but, then again, not. About half the people that leave my organization leave without notice. Here today, gone tomorrow! As an employer, now for thirty years, I’ve seen it all. And what I’m seeing now is an epidemic of people getting up and going at the drop of a hat!

There’s a million reasons people leave a job, many of them valid at some level. Many, many more reasons however, are situations that simply require a healthy dose of open and honest communication to work through. My observation though, is that more and more people would rather throw the baby out with the bath water instead of just changing the water!

Starting over somewhere else, where the allure of greener pastures causes one to jump ship (often without even a simple conversation occurring between the employee and the boss), is just too seductive to many, I guess. As hard as that life choice is to perceive, it appears to be happening more often than not in today’s society.

Here I ask – where were all the parents when these people were growing up?!? If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my three decades of employing thousands of people, it’s this: HOW YOU LEAVE ONE JOB, IS HOW YOU START THE NEXT! Leave at the drop of a hat or on bad terms, and the likelihood of starting your next endeavor on solid footing is shaky at best! Why anyone would choose that route is tough for me to swallow, knowing that the likelihood of the “grass being greener” on the other side of the fence is dubious at best!

Parents, teach your children well! It’s our job to raise them to be successful at whatever they pursue! Leaving a job without notice is unacceptable in almost every situation not involving ethics or abuse! This is, of course, my opinion, which seems to be increasingly in the minority these days.

It was a just over a year ago that my son changed Jimmy John’s locations. Dozens of people have come and gone since he’s started at the new store, but some things haven’t changed. To his knowledge, not a single person has done what, as parents, we insisted he do and put in their two weeks’ notice. They are just at work one day, and gone the next! Parents, raise your kids well, as they are OUR future!