Do I owe this employer professional courtesy?

[JaBlue]

I befriended a kid at chess club in the city. I then became friends with his dad and somehow his work came up and he said that he had summer positions available at his portfolio management. We talked and arranged an agreement where I would come to work for him where I would do some grunt work and learn about the field in return. I would also get paid a little bit, but probably not more than minimum wage.

For the summer I worked for this office doing everything from filing to writing and designing fixed income reports for the more needy clients. This was a huge pain in the ass because I had to look up all of their fixed income holdings and write up a schedule of what they would receive each month and when the principal would be paid for the next 5 years. This doesn't sound too bad but with many clients with many millions of dollars and tons of different holdings, it really sucks. Anyway, I do crap work like this most of the time and get in on some meetings and learn some basic stuff, which is mostly procedural, uninteresting, and unhelpful to me.

I had talks with my boss who was very nice with me and repeatedly promised that I would learn more. At that point I thought I was interested in this field and stock valuation, etc. so I was excited about the opportunity. However, projects frequently came up that had to be done immediately and the learning part of the agreement was never fulfilled in my opinion.

Anyway, after I worked full time in the sumemr like this, I worked half days while in school for a couple weeks. I had one more discussion with him during the school year about my need to learn (because obviously 5$/hr is not enough to be paid for this crap, especially when you consider that after BART every day it works out to ~4/hr) to do this job. Another project came up and I basically decided it wasn't worth the hassle and quit.

By quit I mean that I stopped showing up. I felt that I didn't owe this bastard any professional courtesy because he did not live up to his end of our agreement, and in effect, wasted my summer. Do I owe him the courtesy of showing up and telling him face to face that I quit?

[send_the_msg]

well it was probably worth giving him notice simply to have a good reference in the future.

[RJT]

Will you ever have any need to use this position on a resume? If so, mistake I think. Either way, I don't really understand why you handled it the way you did. Seems you answered your own question already, though.

[jason_t]

Don't burn bridges.

[Reef]

send him a singing telegram. include something about him grabbing his own ankles from now on.

In all seriousness, I think you should've quit the traditional way.

[daryn]

http://www.looptvandfilm.com/blog/douche.jpg

[[censored]]

you handled it in the most idiotic and immature way possible.

You had an amazing opportunity to network and get known with a business and industry. In the finance industry people are extremely busy and dont have time to sit there and teach you. Coming from such an industry I can't begin to tell you how huge of an opportunity you [censored] up. When you think that all you had to do was show up, be dependable and build relationships to provide yourself with a significant advantage in getting a job over other graduates it becomes clear of just how big of an idiot you are.

[send_the_msg]

[ QUOTE ]
you handled it in the most idiotic and immature way possible.

You had an amazing opportunity to network and get known with a business and industry. In the finance industry people are extremely busy and dont have time to sit there and teach you. Coming from such an industry I can't begin to tell you how huge of an opportunity you [censored] up. When you think that all you had to do was show up, be dependable and build relationships to provide yourself with a significant advantage in getting a job over other graduates it becomes clear of just how big of an idiot you are.

[/ QUOTE ]

<peep> it was just a summer job @ min wage </peep>

but yes this situation was not handled optimally

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
By quit I mean that I stopped showing up.

[/ QUOTE ]

What a little bitch you are.

[JaBlue]

[ QUOTE ]
you handled it in the most idiotic and immature way possible.

You had an amazing opportunity to network and get known with a business and industry. In the finance industry people are extremely busy and dont have time to sit there and teach you. Coming from such an industry I can't begin to tell you how huge of an opportunity you [censored] up. When you think that all you had to do was show up, be dependable and build relationships to provide yourself with a significant advantage in getting a job over other graduates it becomes clear of just how big of an idiot you are.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are very harsh, fucker. I appreciate your honesty.

Given what you said, I should reply that I'm 17 and have no idea what I want to do with my life. I thought finance might be an area I was interested in, and it turns out that it's not. I have college ahead of me to figure out what it is that I want to do but I can say that I am pretty sure I don't intend to go into finance. I took the job to find out whether or not I wanted to pursue the field. Making connections, etc. was just a bonus.

I guess I should call the boss in case I need a referral though. Mostly I was just pissed that he wasted my summer and didn't live up to his end of our agreement. He got a competent, fast worker to do stuff for him dirt cheap. Everything that I did he would have had to do, so I saved him an incredible amount of money.

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
By quit I mean that I stopped showing up.

[/ QUOTE ]

What a little bitch you are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yugoslav

[JaBlue]

So I still owe the guy courtesy even though he didn't live up to his end of the bargain?

[The Goober]

You screwed up big time.

You had every right to complain, and every right to quit in the traditional manner, but what do you think you accomplished by just not showing up? He's not going to think "oh, JaBlue stopped showing up - I really should have done more to make this a better oportunity for him." He's going to think "punk kid - last time I ever try to help out someone".

What you did is the equivalent of buying a broken item from a store, but instead of trying to return it, you throw a brick through their window and say "they derserved it."

But I don't mean to sound so self-righteous. I've done dumb [censored] like this before. One time I decided not to pay back rent owed to some idiot kids I was subletting from because of some [censored] they pulled. They deserved it, but that was the wrong way to go about things.

[[censored]]

[ QUOTE ]


<peep> it was just a summer job @ min wage </peep>

but yes this situation was not handled optimally

[/ QUOTE ]

Freshman year of school I got a minimum wage part time job in a very small tax preperation office. My duties were answering the phone, making copies, filing etc. Overtime I built a relationship with the manager of the office and impressed him with my work ethic and desire to go above my required duties by trying to improve the efficiency of the office. At the end of the year he retired, he was so impressed with me he convinced the owner to pay for me to get my license and take over the office for him. My sophmore and junior year I ran the office. The summer of my junior year had an offer with the 2nd largest accounting firm in the world a year before graduation, primarily because of that experience which started as a minimum wage part time job.

[Stu Pidasso]

[ QUOTE ]
So it is in my best interest to give this guy professional courtesy even though he didn't live up to his end of the bargain?

[/ QUOTE ]

Most likely yes.


Stu

[[censored]]

[ QUOTE ]
I should reply that I'm 17

[/ QUOTE ]

ok this makes it better in that you have time to change things. This is a very very bad way of conducting business and you should never do it again. I made plenty of mistakes at 17, just try to learn from them.

[NorCalJosh]

the ONLY reason that your summer was a waste was because you just decided to quit showing up to work, so you can no longer expect anything from this man, as a reference, as a learning tool, as anything.

you are undoubtedly highly overestimating your value to him and his company, and highly underestimating the value of what you learned. you got valuable real life experience at the very least.

and no, you can not call him back now and apologize and hope to use him as a reference later. that would be nearly as dumbass of a move as just not showing up to work in the first place.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
So I still owe the guy courtesy even though he didn't live up to his end of the bargain?

[/ QUOTE ]

Forget about that for a sec. Given the two options:

a) just quit showing up.
b) call or show up and tell him you're quitting.

Why on earth would you not do b? Just to show him in a bitch-like passive-aggressive manner?

You keep talking about "owing him the courtesy" or not. Man, it's not like you're gonna go clean his office or something. You just needed to make a simple phone call, which takes virtually no effort on your part. Of course, you could be a man and actually speak to him face to face about why you're quitting.

Anyway, that's all I'm saying. It was just a bitch move. Others have said why it may be a dumb one as well, but I was just focusing on the bitch aspects of it.

[JaBlue]

[ QUOTE ]

and no, you can not call him back now and apologize and hope to use him as a reference later. that would be nearly as dumbass of a move as just not showing up to work in the first place.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess you're right. I'll call him up, apologize, and not expect a reference.

[judgesmails]

[ QUOTE ]
Do I owe him the courtesy of showing up and telling him face to face that I quit?

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't owe him anything. But do you really want to conduct your professional life like this? I see you are just 17, but you should learn not to act like a spoiled brat over this.

Trust me on this, you will never have an employer who lives up to everything you agree upon pre-employment. Just like you will probably be a typical employee who is late too often, takes an extra 15 minutes at lunch, surfs the internet too much, and leaves early on Fridays.

You will have to take it upon yourself to learn more. Nobody is going to spoon feed you anything in the workplace.

There would have been nothing wrong with you setting up a meeting with your boss and explaining to him that you did not like your job and did not think it would work out and then quitting.

[tonypaladino]

To quit a job by simply stopping to show up, not giving two weeks notice, or even at the very least picking up the phone and letting them know you won't be coming back, is one of the most scumbagish things one can do.

[Vavavoom]

[ QUOTE ]
you handled it in the most idiotic and immature way possible.

You had an amazing opportunity to network and get known with a business and industry. In the finance industry people are extremely busy and dont have time to sit there and teach you. Coming from such an industry I can't begin to tell you how huge of an opportunity you [censored] up. When you think that all you had to do was show up, be dependable and build relationships to provide yourself with a significant advantage in getting a job over other graduates it becomes clear of just how big of an idiot you are.

[/ QUOTE ]

This guy speaks the truth here....

[moondogg]

So you paid your dues, and then took a [censored] on the receipt. Priceless.

[Dominic]

yes. it is the professional thing to do. Just because he didn't live up to his end of the bargain does not mean you can act like a child.

[Mr_J]

He took advantage of you. [censored] him.

[Voltron87]

you handled this terribly.

[moondogg]

Well, you definitely should include this guy as a reference on your resume.

Regardless of what you think you owe him, you DO owe potential employers in the future the common courtesy of making them aware that you pull crap like this.

[James Boston]

You didn't handle this well.

What you have to realize is that, in crunch time, your learning takes a backseat to the company getting their work done. At least, you could have told him why you felt like it was time to quit, and he might have made a serious effort to help you more.

Here's another factor. Even though you're only 17, and will have other opportunities, you missed out on some valuable reference potential. When I needed a college internship, I went to find a local radio station (I was a comm major). I got on at Clear Channel, but the Operations Manager made it clear from the onset that he didn't want to have anything to do with me, even though I had worked in radio for 3 years (professionally, not a college station). He said I could come hang out to get the required hours, but he didn't want to "teach me" and had no use for me. I eventuall talked one of the program directors into letting me Voice Track (pre-record an entire air shift) the overnight time slot on the rock station. I did this for free just to prove to them I knew what I was doing. The manager that didn't like me eventually left. In his absense, I helped out by doing some more shifts - for free again. The manager who had left was the only one on staff authorized to make budget decisions, so nobody could authorize paying me, but they promised to talk me up to whoever came in next. One change lead to another, I got moved to sales, and I'm now the highest billing sales rep with the company.

Bottom line, "bitch work" can pay off. It doesn't always work out well, but you can usually tell the difference in being jerked around and being put off until the time is right. It sounds like you got trigger happy with this one. Fortunately, you'll have plenty of chances to do it right next time.