Business Vocabulary: Dealing with Bosses Who Don't Let You Go

Image from ©2011 Warner Bros. Ent.

It really doesn't take bosses like the ones in Horrible Bosses to give you a hard time. As a matter of fact, all it takes is any boss.

Recently, I am reading on the advices on the web for people who are finding it trouble dealing with their bosses. I wonder how many of these advices actually works?

Dealing with bosses is basically dealing with people, and people do come in many types, thus different personalities. If there was one general formula that works with all bosses, I would love to know it, but my guess is, there is none.

For example, how do you handle a boss who knows you are changing jobs and doesn't let you go? Even if you have submitted your resignation letters way before the commencement date of your new job, she still rejects it, giving you all those nice reasons and saying how important you are to the company when in fact she has been treating you like dirt. Now that you are running short of time for the one-month notice because of the first resignation letter rejection and now your boss is complaining about the shortness of notice time?

Of course, if you don't want to ruin your name in the field. Business Insider has an article which gives you "Six Reasons Why You Should Never Quit Without Notice".

1. Your ex-colleagues-to-be will suffer if you quit too soon.
2. It's a small world out there.
3. You may end up working in this company again in the future?
4. A bad record follows you for life.
5. You will lose money / bonuses you are entitled to.
6. Good reference letter? No way!

On the other hand, your new job's HR is saying that they won't wait for you for 30 days and if you don't want the job, they can always find someone else.

They are pushing you from both sides and you are all by yourself juggling, what can you do?

Image from ©2011 Warner Bros. Ent.

The most important action you should take in this situation is knowing your rights and Labour Law, different countries and states have different labour laws so it is important to find out what you rights you are entitled to.

For the case of Hong Kong's Labour Law, the instructions are as follows,


That means if you have signed a contract which says you have to pay one month salary as wage in lieu of notice because you have less than 30 days notice, then you must that one month salary, if so, you better decide to quit ASAP since you are going to pay one month salary to the company anyway. No point working till last working day and still pay one month wage in lieu of notice, right?

Horrible Bosses
Image Warner Bros/ Sportsphoto Ltd/ Allstar

Well, maybe, you want that good impression for that good reference letter, but from my personal opinions, if your boss doesn't like you in the first place, then your reference letter is nothing much more than a work duration verification stating from which day till which day you worked in this company. A bad reference letter can be worse than having no reference letter.

Can the boss or GM or anyone superior to you disapprove of your resignation? Well, in actual fact, no! Generally speaking, most contracts should say "either party can terminate the contract" under some conditions such as wage in lieu of notice, so as long as you have the money to pay, no one can really stop you.

Mario Ballotelli in rival AC Milan's shirt
Image from ronaldo7.net

Ask any famous international football players, if they can pay for themselves, they can quit any football club at any time, though they will normally ask for a contract termination on mutual consent, or play dirty like wearing the team shirt of a rival club like Mario Ballotelli and force the chairman to fire him by disappearing like Carlos Tevez.

Carlos Tevez
Image from ronaldo7.net

Vocabulary:
commencement -- (n) [C or U] formal the beginning of something
pay/ wage in lieu of notice -- (n) an employment law term used to describe a payment made to an employee by the employer, rather than the employee working through their statutory notice period. -- in lieu -- (n) formal instead (of)
in the first place -- in or at the beginning (of a series of events)
terminate -- (vb) [I or T] formal to (cause something to) end or stop
mutual consent -- (n)[U] agreed by both parties

Resources:

Horrible Bosses @ IMDb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1499658/

Horrible Bosses Character Trailer - Kevin Spacey @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWtywioYgYQ

Horrible Bosses Character Trailer - Colin Farrell @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJlGdhj2mX8

Horrible Bosses Character Trailer - Jennifer Aniston  @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_4xONQHaM

Six Reasons Why You Should Never Quit Without Notice @ Business Insider
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-02-22/strategy/30010564_1_bosses-notice-job-change

What To Do When Your Boss Doesn’t Like You @ GPB Blogs
http://www.gpb.org/blogs/working-and-career/2012/02/01/what-to-do-when-your-boss-doesn%E2%80%99t-like-you

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/commencement?q=commencement+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_in_lieu_of_notice
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/lieu?q=in+lieu#lieu__3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/first_1?q=in+the+first+place#first_1__3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/terminate_1?q=terminate+