Job Discussion Forums

Yu · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 1219 Location: Shanghai

I guess I did pull a runner.... but not in China.
It was just after I graduated from high school. I landed a job at a rehabilitation center for people with head injuries. The first two days were training. The third day I was asked to help wipe a man's ass and he called me a word that started with a B.
I did not show up for work the next day. I did not show up to collect my pay. I did not ever contact the people there again.
One week later I found a job at a video store for half the pay.

tofuman · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 937

Yu,

That is really a sad story. Imagine someone calling you that name. Absolutely horrible. And to have to deal with waste matter is beyond the normal scope of most job descriptions. I feel your pain.

Deconstructor · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 775 Location: Montreal

I pulled a runner when I was in Germany (though I'm not sure if this actually constitutes as one. But you tell me). I was working for a man who was positively out of his mind. The range of his being unreasonable was unprecedented. He would literally ask me to teach in two places at the same time and insult the teachers at every corner! I learned from couple of teachers that some X teachers hadn't been paid their last cheque before leaving, so in order to get my last cheque at the end of my contract, I promised the owner that I was going to continue teaching English for him (he was badly in need of teachers) but that first I had to go back home to get married (which was true) and bring my wife back to Germany. Thinking that I was coming back, he gave me what was coming to me. I never showed up at his door step again.

Hendahu · Joined: 27 Apr 2006 Posts: 69

I have stayed at crummy job most of a year, but there were many a day I wanted to pull a midnight run. However I did sign a contract..and I felt obligated for my students. But just before the end of the contract, like a week to go, they fired me and did not pay my bonus or airflight reimbursement....still I feel I did the right thing.

Hendahu · Joined: 27 Apr 2006 Posts: 69

So I guess the lesson is no good deed goes unpunished...but I am glad I didn't run.

2 over lee · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:44 am Post subject:

Pulled one with five others teachers on the same night - I was influenced by an older person - as were the other three. The boss was a lying
b astard - but looking back I regret doing it.

Gregor · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 842 Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

I voted the-runner-as-scum, and was surprised at how many others did as well. And I developed that attitude before I ever became a DoS. It just makes a lot of unexpected work for the other teachers.

I've left a teaching job with notice once. In Lebanon, my boss kept sending me to immigration with a letter asking for an extension on my work permit. That happened three times, and finally, the guy wrote in my passport, in French, Arabic and English, NO EXTENSIONS. He was pissed off, too.
I had already told my boss I would leave if she did it again, so I told her I was leaving, made arrangements, and left. I don't think I had a contract yet, and I was paid in full for services rendered.

Oh, you know what? I DID pull a runner on a different kind of job once. Sort of. I was working at a checks to cash loan place. You know, the kind of place where trailer trash go to write a bad check AND ADMIT THAT IT'S BAD, and promise to pay 587% interest on the loan, come payday. It's a thing in America these days. Like the modern day version of the pawn shop. (Amazingly, very few people completely defaulted on those loans. I was amazed that that.)
Anyway, one day I was dressed smartly, as always, in my teacher clothes. Nice, collared shirt and tie, slacks, shiny shoes, etc. The regional manager came in and SENT ME HOME for having inappropriate dress. My shirt was supposed to be blue or white, you see. Gotta impress the trailer trash. Or maybe more like "Gotta distinguish ourselves FROM the clientele." That was probably it. Had nothing to do with logo color schemes (green white and orange).
I made a big show of removing all my possessions from my desk and leaving. And I never went back.
Sort of an impulse runner.
By the way - VERY crap job.

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

A runner....

yea.. Roofing in Clearwater Florida...yea I remember that "half a day"... left on the sly when after breakfast with the cons...the foreman warned me not to fall off the roof..too much paperwork he explained..which meant a ditch would serve as an emergency room...