Sunday, June 30, 2002

I’ve been neglecting this journal for awhile. I’ve found that I tend to do this when my life is fluctuating, but I have little to actually do. It’s those times when I’m busy but stable that I find the time to update my journal.

In any event, the big news of the past week is that I quit Intersect on Friday.

Why would I do such a crazy thing? After Intersect let about twenty of its employees go, one of the executives asked me to “stay around” and help with documentation. This was to be long-term, probably, but nothing definite had been decided.

So, a week ago last Friday, I finished up all the work that needed to be done for our current release, then explained to the project lead that I was going to go home, pending a call from him with a decision about documentation in the future.

I then spent all of last week waiting, with no call from the project lead. I finally went in on Friday (two days ago) and explained that I wanted to move on. He agreed that that was the best course, since he said that so much is changing that he wouldn’t be able to even provide me with a decision about this for at least a few weeks.

This annoys me quite a bit. Intersect had me as a contractor but wouldn’t provide me with any work, or even any assurance that I would have any work in the future. But they wouldn’t let me go. So, I had to quit, which means that I can’t collect unemployment, despite the fact that I didn’t particularly want to leave Intersect.

In other words, they told me to stick around with them, but then never gave me any work, so I wasn’t getting paid. If I’d kept my mouth shut, I could have kept looking for another job while still staying as a full-time contractor (with no work) at Intersect. When I found a new job, I could have just dropped Intersect like a hot potato.

Instead, I decided to be honest with them and explain that I really didn’t want to work there anymore, and that I wasn’t going to provide any further services (unless there’s a brief emergency; I won’t mind providing a few hours’ work on an evening or weekend if they’re in an unexpected bind). And as a result, I have no way to collect unemployment, even though it wasn’t originally my choice about leaving the company. They just wouldn’t give me any work to do.

Now arguably, I caused much of my current predicament. I could have simply said nothing to Intersect while continuing to look for a job. I don’t see how I would have been violating my honor, or anybody else’s.

But I still wish that Intersect had treated me with a bit more respect.