What should I do now?

[karpaasi]

I am currently in the process with three agencies. Though no one here can vouch for me, I think I'm a good candidate. Bachelor and masters degree, good physical shape and in good health, no criminal background, good credit, solid references, good work history, etc. However, I am also coincidentally in a crappy situation at work. I have had three bosses in my current job, and I do not see eye to eye with my current boss. The issues aren't issues of misconduct, but are about philosophy of the business and leadership style. My current boss applied for his current job and did not get it two bosses ago, only to be promoted into it a while later. We purposely didn't hire him the first time. Seems politics came back to bite me in the butt.

The situation is bad. His reference is my biggest concern. I do have good work experience and good references from past bosses (same employer). Should I:

a) Try to stick with it and hope that his reference doesn't kill me.
b) Take the honorable route and quit on good terms and ask him to give me a fair reference. I would still be able to work with the employer in a part-time capacity in a different department.

Looking for a job in LE doesn't seem to be favorable when I'm not employed full-time. It must be a red flag. However, there's no way of getting around him not finding out, since I know he will be talked to during the BI.

[LawEnfWB]

Don't quit just because you think he's going to give you a bad reference. Respectfully speaking, that's not the mature thing to do. I would just be honest and let the chips fall where they may. If your BI has questions he/she will ask. Don't jump to conclusions. Be Honest!

I had a similar situation where I told my boss that I was seeking employment as a police officer. At the time, I was a temporary employee working through a temp agency. Not only did he not have a problem, he has also been very supportive. Sounds like your boss would love to see you go, so maybe you should explain the situation? He'll give you a glowing recommendation. Hey, you never know?

[karpaasi]

Yes, I agree, the preference would be to stay at work and do the best job I can. Unfortunately, my boss is very much of the opinion that either you are 110% into your job or it's time to leave. I haven't told him about my interest in LE yet, because I am not in the BI phase with any department. That is probably about a month away. I guess my thoughts were whether I leave on good terms now, or in the next few months I get asked to leave. What is worse, telling a prospective employer you left on your own terms or that you were asked to leave? I'm pretty sure that he doesn't want me in the position, so it's really a matter of time.

[LawEnfWB]

One question you will be asked on the initial application and/or background questionnaire is whether you have quit a job because you thought you were about to be fired. If he asks you to leave simply because you decided to pursue LE then I highly doubt it will have a negative impact when you apply for a LE job. LE agencies look at circumstances. Don

[karpaasi]

I was actually asked that question at one of my initial interviews, and did have that happen to me once a few years back. I've been working either in a part-time or full-time job (or both at the same time) for the past 13 years, so it's likely that at some point I have had issues with a boss. I'm not hard to work with, but sometimes you just don't click with the man. The agency moved me on to the next stage without any further discussion. Beyond that I have never been faced with "quit or we'll fire you." In perspective, I guess we've all had our issues. The stuff I'm dealing with now and then was management and work style differences. There have never been issues of honesty, harrassment, misconduct, etc.

I guess it concerns me because I feel great about everything else on my application except for these instances. I think you're right though, I won't sweat it...too much.

[karpaasi]

Unfortunately my situation has gone from bad to worse. I am very disappointed with the treatment I am getting from my employer. I have been working with the same organization for 10 years (5 years FT). End of year appraisels have respectively been a B+, B+, A- and Commendable (we ditched the A-D scale this past year). Out of the blue I was written up. No formal verbal or written warnings in my whole career. This guy has been my boss for only 6 months and has questioned my whole career. I am officially on a 60 day action plan. The funny thing is that I'm not on the chopping block (yet), but they felt the need to question my iniative, teamwork, vision and judgment. It was a very vague and broad action plan, with no specifics as to what I had done wrong and what I was supposed to do to get back on track, but it did contain all the things that they NOW expect out of my position. I feel like I was given a new job description (two folks have mentioned it reads like a job description), and I'm being punished for not doing the job that I didn't know I was supposed to be doing

I'm trying to be optimistic. I have a stellar background, but I know this is huge mountain to climb. With my education I'm not concerned about getting another job if I decide to leave, but I really want a career in LE. I am going to try to trade my resignation for a clean record (I think they can remove the action statement if they want too). Otherwise, I'm going stay with the organization, meet the action plan, and then have the success documented in my file.

[LawEnfWB]

It sounds like this boss has it in for you. If this situation looks like it's going to get worse it might be in your best interest to obtain a copy of your complete employment file including the reprimand. I agree you should try to work with him, if possible. If your company has a human resources protocol governing reprimands you may want to look to see if there's anything you can do just in case. In other words, did your boss follow proper procedure before reprimanding you? Don't give anyone an excuse to fire you.

I had a post-process interview with a Maryland police lieutenant, during which he said something to the effect that just because someone is fired doesn't necessarily mean that they were at fault. Sometimes there are good bosses and some bosses are "*** holes."

[karpaasi]

A couple of thoughts come to mind...

1. NC is an "at will" state, which means they can fire me without a valid reason. With that said, the organization I work for is large enough that they try to have some system of reprimand in place. I called our VP of HR to get some direction on what my options are, and she was very sympathetic when I complained that I had NOTHING in my record before this, and no warning that it was coming. I know her personally, and although she has to tow the party line, I could sense that she knew I was getting a raw deal.

2. Even with the reprimand, I have enough tenure that I'm not worried about getting fired. Worse comes to worse, I will be able to resign on my own accord, give the appropriate notice of a month or two, and move on without any issue. The issue that ****es me off is that during a BI the reprimand will be available, and it is a stain on my record. Both departments I'm applying to are local, so they will likely make the effort to come by and look at my file.

3. There are a few options. If I can negotiate my resignation (which is what I think they want) for a clean record, I will probably go for that. Financially I'm fine for now. Another option is to bust my *** for the next 60 days and have an addition made to the reprimand stating that I accomplished the set goals, and then move on. I guess the worse case scenario is that I leave now with the reprimand in my file, but write a rebuttal to the reprimand (and I do think I have some good information from recent PA's to argue against the reprimand).

There are a ton of politics where I work. My loyalty to a past supervisor is killing me now. Our branch of the organization has been thought of as the "rebel" branch for a few years (although our growth and budget have been spectacular). With my past supervisor's departure, I do think they have moved folks in place to create change.

[P/O CASS]

You have a goal to be in law enforcement and end your business career. Why not be a "yes sir / no sir" type of an employee and ride your time out?

[Airforcop]

Wether you negotiate the reprimand out of your file or not, it still happened and should still be reported to the BI. The last thing you want is not to say anything about it to the BI just to have them contact your current supervisor whom it sounds like might be more than willing to mention it. I had been in the military for 9 1/2 yrs when I applied. I had recieved 1 verbal counceling and 1 letter of counceling in that time, neither of which could ever be tracked down via paperwork. None of the supervisors who had given them to me were mentioned anywhere on my paperwork simply because other people had supervised me for longer periods of time, or I had absolutely no way of tracking them down and thus listed a different supervisor. Point in case, none of them knew anything about these counceling sessions, but I still told the BI.

I would rather them not hire me because they didn't like something I did in the past, than them to question my integrity.

[karpaasi]

Airforcop, you are right on. For me, the most important thing is my integrity. Part of the reason that I want to have this cleared from my file is the fact that I think it questions my integrity in the organization, which I don't think is justified. I will convey this information as appropriate during my BI. I have no intention of hiding it, regardless of the outcome.

P/O CASS, unfortunately I don't feel like it is that simple. It isn't so much my lack of following orders as much as it is the leadership wanting to change the way things are. Although I haven't committed any misconduct, they have found some very "broad" ways to question my performance. Just like in any job, I believe you can find faults, big or small, if you look hard enough.

With that said , the reality is that I will be riding my time out. As I noted earlier in this thread, with my tenure I will able to leave on my own terms. I do feel like it is important to go ahead and state that I am ready to move on and pursue other endeavors. However, this will mean anywhere from one to four months of time to ride things out and leave my department in the best shape possible.

Interestingly, one of the things I'm looking forward to in LE is the fact that many things are black/white. Right now I work in a very intangible environment, and the unfortunate thing about that is that it is easy to reprimand someone and call it an issue with attitude or vision or leadership, without having any tangible examples of what you've done wrong. Case in point - there is no specificity, either in what I've done wrong, or what I'm supposed to do better, in my written action plan.

At least in LE I feel like I can be assured that the person supervising me will have been in my shoes before. In my current case my supervisor has none, nada experience in what I do. However, there has been no lack of "this should be the way things are," and some of these expectations are unrealistic. However, my stating that they are unrealistic comes across as a lack of iniative or leadership or a poor attitude.