Yesterday I quit my job at a tech startup after only two days of work. I agonized over the decision all weekend, anticipating a wash of shame over fulfilling the millennial stereotype— especially with everyone bemoaning a new trend of millennials ghosting work.
While I definitely didn’t ghost, and definitely walked through the super awkward quitting phone call with the hiring manager (yay integrity 😁), quitting after two days is still not a great thing to do, though it was definitely the right thing to do for me. Also, it’s a lot more common than I realized — and even supported if it’s with good reason.
So, feeling I did have good reason, I thought I’d offer some food for thought from the other side. With so many employers facing an onslaught of flaky employees, hopefully some of these points of reflection will save a few managers from a few headaches.
1. There are a lot of job options right now
While I quit this job because it wasn’t the right fit for me culture-fit-wise or skills-wise, that’s all much easier to say given I know how easily I can find another job. In fact, I’d turned down other offers in the process of signing my offer letter, and actually had another offer come in between the day I signed and the first day of work.
With unemployment at its lowest rate in years, there’s a lot of choice for employees on the job hunt, and not a lot of pressure to settle. This is especially the case for young tech professionals in cities — there are a ton of really great startups doing cool stuff, many of which are growing fast and in need of employees.
2. If an employee is interviewed for one role and seems like a better fit for another, a second interview is still a good idea
If an employee is interviewed for one job and hired for another, it’s very likely best for both sides that there is at least short second interview — even if just on the phone. Interviews are where both manager and interviewee visualize what the day-to-day is going to look like from their respective angles. Without a second interview, it’s easy to make the mistake of mentally saying “yes” to the role visualized in the interview, while not being a fit for the role hired for.
Take my experience for example. Though I’m still early in my career, there’s a lot on my resume that shows I’m ambitious and leadership-oriented. So when I was first interviewed at Place Where I Quit on the Second Day, and was being considered for a lead role for a client-services team (I’d never done client-services before), I was surprised but happy my experience garnered such confidence.
In follow-up after the interview, I was told I would be offered the job though it would be as a “senior” rather than “lead.” Partly because ego, and partly because corporate-speak is confusing, I didn’t end up asking a lot of questions about this, and assumed it to be more of a title change than responsibilities change.
Note to self: don’t assume things. It turned out I would basically be a peer employee on the team I was interviewed to be leading. And while I briefly held out hope that this was just a training thing and in a few months time I’d be working towards that role, hope was quashed on Day 2 when my manager said they were actively interviewing others for the lead role. In other words, the leadership and ambition I thought I was being sought out for was basically inapplicable. It was a bummer, but looking back, it’s obvious that on paper my leadership experience made me look like a more seasoned professional than I was. I imagine there was some surprise when it was me that walked through the door — I was over 5 years younger than the employees I was potentially going to be “leading.” Still, a brief second interview would have been a frictionless but clear way to communicate that change in perspective.
3. A little “honeymooning” can go a long way
Back when unemployment was high and job options limited, I imagine hiring managers could more safely assume that the wooing and schmoozing of a candidate could safely be dropped after the offer letter is signed.
I’m not so sure that’s safe anymore (and maybe never really was?). In the reality of an employee-driven job market (remember point #1?), assessment of right fit is still happening afterward, and especially so on Day 1.
So employees and managers being on their best behavior around a new employee goes a long way. Obviously, the real face of the office culture comes to the fore eventually; however, while a hot and cold manager or a frustrating client can be something to complain about and bond over on Day 8, in the first hours 48 hours it can easily come off as a culture of miserable people.
By example, on my second day, I saw a manager get bad news about a product bug in the middle of an update meeting; the manager went from quietly listening to the updates to impatiently interrupting each update with nitpicky questions and disapproval, and going off on distracted tangents about the bug.
Given that product bugs and challenges are par for the course at a startup, it was a red flag to see a manager so openly stressed at the situation. The manager didn’t even know yet if many users had been impacted. When no one in the room did anything to suggest this was an unusual reaction, I learned volumes about what I was getting myself into.
Conclusion
Obviously at the end of the day, there is only so much an employer can do, and in many cases the reasons an employee early quits/ghosts are completely out of their hands.
Still, remembering the basic reality that job candidates have a lot of options right now can go a long way to inform a stronger hiring process. Traditionally the classic “probation period” is the company trying out the employee — right now, that trial really runs both ways.
