This article is built around this email:
I am returning to work this week after being out on maternity leave. I love my job and the work I do, but my direct supervisor is such a toxic person that it has made it unbearable to be at work. While on FMLA leave, I found a new job, and I want to take it. He is not above choosing favorites, and he does so blatantly without any regard for how it affects others. He buys gifts for his favorites, takes them to lunch, gives them confidential info about the company or personnel, gives them extra money during the holidays and is generally nicer in his approach with them. Our HR manager is one his favorites and rather enjoys it so she does nothing to put an end to the behavior. I can’t take it anymore. I imagine his reaction to my 2 weeks notice after coming back from maternity leave will go over like a lead balloon.
To read the answer to this question, click here: Resigning after returning from leave
Respectfully, it is a companies responsibility (although they would like you to believe it is YOU and not Them) to create and maintain a work environment that people don’t want to quit from. If a better job comes along or an impossibly awful boss is in place, you should move on.
You are really nothing but a tool and if you stopped being a useful tool, you would be replaced by the company as you should be. If you were a computer that crashed, the company may try to “fix” you but if you were not fixable, you would be replaced.
I hate to make human beings seem so not human but it is the reality. The whole idea of being “part of the family” is HR mythology to keep the peasants from rising up in the kingdom. Biggest difference is a hammer can’t talk back.
So, as a person, you should always be on the lookout to better deal your situation. You should be loyal, smart, hardworking and productive 9-5…that is what you are paid for.
Caveat….it is not so simple as always being on the lookout for a better job. Career Management is a 24/7 job that most people invest in so keep that in mind or you will just, most likely, repeat the same career mistakes of the past, again and again and again………………
Leaving your current workplace for good after having taken a long leave doesn’t sound very polite, but being altruistic is not always the best option and sometimes we have to put self first. If you dare to make this move be aware of your boss’s reaction caused by his/her punctured ego and don’t let them rain on your parade.