Re: What a predicament!

Subject: Re: What a predicament!
From: Hannah <to -dot- hannah -at- usa -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: 1 Mar 2002 15:39:11 EST

Anonymous,

You feel you were asked to do something illegal. As others have said, you need
to consult with a lawyer to be sure this is so. Another step to take is to do
what you need to do to stay out of depression. Take time off, consult a
professional, evaluate the choices you've made, and come up with a plan for
the future. It may mean sticking it out until you can get another job. It may
mean a different career. It may mean quitting without going back and getting a
new job right away (or after disability runs out). And talk with the therapist
about it. They are there to help get you through this. While you're at it, I
recommend asking for stress-management techniques for the future. I suspect
some of this may have been avoided if you could have recognized the warning
signs that you were nearing such a severe state. And no matter what job you
have, you will always have to deal with someone telling you to do something
that goes against your better judgement. We all need to learn how to handle
those situations and keep our sanity.

As for when you interview at other places, I would not recommend "getting into
it all". Just as any other job where maybe things weren't so great, you need
to have a plan of response. Mine is to say that the company's direction was
not the same as where I saw my career needed to be. I then fine tune it
depending on the company. Did the company change something drastic, like their
market, approach, focus, while you were there? I had one that was really
gung-ho into creating a web presence and then it slowly fizzled and decided to
not really focus on that part of its business. I state that when I was hired
my interest and what I was hired to do centered on that web presence and that
I could see my career opportunities becoming very limitted as they pulled away
from that focus. It's not a lie. It's just controlling how and where the focus
of the interviewer's attention is. Do I mention that the company completely
self-sabotaged their own endeavor? Do I cite how the Director of the division
didn't understand even the basics of the internet, let alone how to do
business on it? Do I cite how the manager of the department was chosen because
he was a wimpy yes man who never challenged the higher ups, even when the
business absolutely depended on it? Do I cite how their idea of testing and
quality control was to have call center operators go through a testing packet
written by someone who had no idea how to conduct proper testing and thought
that editing was part of testing? Nope. I keep all that to myself.

I also you the same philosophy when leaving a place I have issues with. I do
not storm off or just quit in a flurry. I meet with them and say basically the
same thing - this is not where I want my career to be going and I'm going to
continue to a different job that will take me where I want to be. Most
companies have enough internal problems that most exit interviewers will fill
in their own blanks about the obstacles you encountered. I always add that I
have a great opportunity with another company. I do - whether I've found it
yet or not is not important.

Anyway, I hope it all works out for you.

hannah Bissell

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