To Quit or Not to Quit - - I Quit.

 People will tell you that quitters are losers and losers quit. That's not a good statement in all cases, as it's not the least bit true or correct when it comes to so many things you should probably quit. For instance, should a person continue to smoke, drink excessively, cheat on their spouse, beat the dog, hit people in anger, or should they QUIT that behavior? I'm not talking about reducing that behavior, I'm talking about quitting it, stopping it altogether. They should stop. There's no other answer.  Should a person who is in a bad relationship just stay in it? Should they (maybe for the kids sake) stay and suffer the unbearable misery they're existing in, or should they QUIT? They should quit, c'mon, it's a no-brainer. Well, the same is true when one finds themselves working for an employer who told one set of tales, but was found out in due time, to have been lying and in fact purposely deceiving people to get their metrics of hiring people. It doesn't matter to them if they lose a few, the fact is they have a goal set and they try to meet that goal. They must hire 100 by March, another 100 by June, say another 100 by September, and if 14-19% fall off or quit they consider their efforts worthy. Count me in the mix with the 14-19% who were hired the start of January, and gone by mid month. That's right, I quit.

    Having just recently passed the SIE exam, and having been blindly applying for literally every job available that had the words "investment" and/or "finance" in the job description, I half-heartedly put my resume out to over 100 employers hoping to find the one job that stood out to me. I found said job, no problems, but it came to me AFTER I had accepted another position, one I wasn't really thrilled to take, but to be honest the toll was lighter than most, it was from home, it had decent hours, and yes, there was pay, but it wasn't stellar. I told myself it was going to be OK because it was at home, I could wake up and be in my jammies on the computer without being on video, and I could basically do my chores while I walked around the house using wireless headphones during the training portion of the job.  It didn't quite work out that way, the company has software that detects the type of headset you're using and they insisted on being wired to the computer so you couldn't walk around your house doing chores I guess. 

    The really good news, if there was in fact good news, about this company, was that they were rather established and they had a decent reputation for paying on time, having good benefits and working you the hours they told you they were going to work you. In my case, the hours were supposed to be 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and no weekends or evenings; perfect.  It wasn't exactly that way though. As training began, and the connections for several agents (insurance inbound calls) were unable to connect, our connections were dropped, and we had other technical real-world problems with being able to communicate freely and easily with trainers, several of us realized that we had been told various hours, had been misled about the training methods, and we were not sure (not one of us was actually sure) when or if we would have to work weekends once training was over. We were told no, at least I was. 

    Two weeks into the training, having found out we were given the wrong courses to follow and complete, a few of us banded together privately and decided to have a chit chat with the manager. He was cordial enough to having an open bitch session, no worries there, but when the bitching began he put us all on alert that (a) the hours were much later than we were told (b) weekends were a real thing and we needed to adjust our schedules if asked (c) the benefits really didn't start for 30 days after the 90 day probation period and here's the one that really stuck to our ribs - - (d) the company was going to license each of us in all 50 states and we, WE, were going to have to pay all of those license fees back if we quit within a year - - or if they chose to fire us for what they determined to be cause. Oh, OK, hold on, do the words "FUCK YOU" come to mind? They did for me. I just said it in another way. "I QUIT".

    Having been used and incredibly abused over the past 40 years by employers who think they can have their say and you have to succumb to it or be terminated, I chose termination by my own terms. No one is going to bully me into doing things their way, I am a professional and I have too many years of real quality experience to be treated as a pawn.  I was polite about it, I was empathetic to the bane that the others were feeling. I couldn't see them to see their faces as we were all using an Adobe Connect product to be in a virtual classroom chat, but we could talk using our headsets and we could chat as well.  Many (not only me) were complaining about the deception, or at least the misrepresentation of what they were told when being recruited. Several didn't have a clue that they would be expected to pay back a single fee, let alone 49, save the one they paid for themselves when they were licensed in their own state. 

    More than 1/3 of us were upset about the hours, the days, the pay, the benefits, the fact that our bonuses were not to be paid until 5 months after our first start and 90 days after our first production day. That's not what we signed up for. Should we stay? Should be endure? Should we just simply shrug our shoulders and say "Well, it's better than nothing I guess."  No.  We had 22 hired the first day of class, by the first week three had left, and now, on the 10th, five others walked away....upset, but better for it. We kept our integrity, they never had it to begin with.

    I'm pretty excited that I got out when I did. Not one hour after I left I had a call from the guy I was hoping would have called me before I accepted the call center job. He had family issues, then he had to deal with the Rona, so he's back in the saddle, and ready to go - - and so am I.  He's going to pay for me to take the needed courses to finish my Finance education. He'll pay for the courses, the exams, and the two licenses I need, and I don't have to pay that back if I quit. He's going to allow me to start as a W2 employee, not a 1099, and I have benefits from the 1st day of employment, not the 90th day. This is the way it should be; professionals treating professionals ...you know, professionally!  The pay is better than normal, the hours are literally my own, I decide when I work. I keep my own hours. I have decided Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. sound pretty good, and he is A-OK with that too. YES!

    See, if I had not quit I may have been stuck. The old company was literally hours away from sending out my applications to 49 states for my life and health licenses. I would have had to stay 12 months or pay back over $7500 in the next 90 days. Who can do that? Not anyone I know, and not anyone who accepts a call center position as an inbound insurance agent. That's their thing, that's how they hook you and that's how they treat real humans with experience! No thank you. I quit them. I have no problems saying it out loud in front of God and everyone else - - THEY DESERVE IT.  They don't deserve me. Before I left I wrote a kind and courteous note to the class in chat saying I appreciated the opportunity and meeting each of them. I gave them my website: www.judestringfellow.com and I gave them my email as well. Do you know I had three people sign up to follow me on Instagram and Facebook, and they were so sweet -- they thanked me for leading the way.  They quit too.  

    It's OK to quit sometimes. It's OK to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH! Let your light shine, be the servant, yes, but don't be the door mat!  No one gets to push you around. You have the ability to be your best defense. Say it with me "I am allowed to be appreciated!"  (and you are)

Photo Credit: Live About