Dear Boss, I hereby tender my resignation...

Dear Boss,

I hereby tender my resignation with immediate effect. As you are probably unaware, there are numerous issues with my job and the current workplace which makes my continuing employment here untenable. Although, these in themselves, are reason enough for anyone to leave such a workplace, I have greater things coming my way right now.

I was planning on tendering my resignation in a few weeks' time anyway, but an opportunity has been delivered to me which gives me need to hasten that act. I had planned to leave your employ at the end of July and enjoy a month or so holiday before spending the Jewish New Year with my family in Perth. Following that, I was to move permanently to Israel. This is is a plan which has been roughly (and I use that word in its extreme sense) been in place since late 1993. The dream of returning to live in Israel has always been with me, and, as a wise sage once said (I hope she doesn't mind me quoting her here...):

If I don’t go, I will be forever plagued by the ‘what if’ and it will eventually consume your life and cause me to blame any future failings/mishaps on not ever taking the plunge.

It has already plagued for for a long time. But the fact that I tend to be attracted to certainty (in some aspects of my life) has held me back. No more. It is time to take the plunge and live my dream.

As mentioned earlier though, the decision has been brought forward somewhat due to the impending fulfillment of another dream of mine - working in the humanitarian sector, in the field. When I started working for you, I thought I would be going 'half way there'. But after not too long I realised I was simply working for a bureaucratic monster, where my efforts had very little affect on humanitarian sector at all. Twice before I have come close to a deployment to the field with RedR Australia. Once I turned it down due to having recently started a new job, and last year, I was practically prevented from applying while in your employ. This time, I am going. Shortly, I will be off to Senegal to work with the World Food Programme for 3 months. This fits perfectly with my timeline, and could not be a better offer for myself.

In all this though, I do not want you to think that I am leaving because of my desire to fulfill a dream or two. I would be leaving anyway, perhaps just with not as much excitement in my body. There are many problems with this work place, many reasons to not work here, and although I have tried to discuss many of them with you before, you have rarely listened to me and barely acted on them. I know many feel the same as me, and I know you don't believe that. Below, you will find, in no particular order, what I think is a damning list of reasons why this workplace is no longer for me.

• There are no prospects of me ever progressing to a more senior position. There is clearly a glass ceiling above my head.
• On the one hand, I find myself in a non-senior position, but there is no one in my field in a more senior position from whom I can learn from - consequently, I also do the work of that person whom I should be learning from.
• On the other hand, I am expected to do work above my pay grade without any form of recognition.
• I am employed in a technical position with a technical job description, yet due to lack of support in the office, the bulk of my work is non-technical. Consequently, I am losing technical skills in a position listed on my CV as being technical. Of course, I'm gaining other skills, but not in a structured or recognised fashion.
• Bureaucracy is taken to a new high. Achieving something technical which should take a week, takes a year. This is no way to solve the world's problems.
• It is hard trying to follow in an organisation where senior management rarely leads.
• It is hard trying to work effectively in an organisation where senior management rarely manages.
• It is frustrating and downright insulting working in an organisation where senior management does not listen to staff when serious issues are brought to their attention.
• This work environment offers no job certainty. Because of your name, you expect people to grovel and hang around until the last moment - this isn't right. My job is ending in a year's time anyway - surely you do not expect me to hang around until the last day before I find something else? I need to be the master of my own career and not react to an expired contract.
• Again, because of the name, I seem to work in an environment where staff are taken advantage of because of the perceived desire to work in the organisation.
• I can't rely on the 'greater' organisation to be on my side when it comes to accomplishing my work.
• I can deal with a lack of transparency and cronyism in general. I cannot deal with it when there is a claim that it is not the case. I never knew that there could be such a wide gap between the holistic, altruistic claims of an organisation and the actual goings on.
• I am prevented from experiencing professional development when I try to develop myself, where there is allocated budget, without any explanation given. The same opportunities are of course available to those in more 'core' functions despite the budget supposedly being tighter.
• The IT infrastructure really is a little sub-standard.
• You misled me during the recruitment process. You told me that if an opportunity with RedR would come up during my employment that we could discuss me going and there was the possibility that I could go. Yet when the time arose, you gave me a blanket 'no' without really discussing it. This time, I cannot afford to give you the chance.
• You misled me regarding remuneration package in my job offer. You informed me that there is an employer contribution to my pension. You neglected to inform me that I will never see a single cent of that contribution due to the term of my employment contract.
• Do we need to hire someone or spend money to talk about what we're doing? Of course. Do we need to hire someone or spend money on actually doing something? Of course. Yet typically, only one of these two things typically happens - and if a choice has to be made, it's the wrong one.
• The incompetency, apparent nepotism, cronyism and unethical behaviour, with respect to HR in particular, is mind boggling.
• I am sick and tired of the unethical behaviour around human resources. Please understand - there is 'being ethical' and there is 'appearing ethical', both are important. Should a certain process be followed when hiring someone under contract type A? Sure - but let's only do it in some situations. Are certain types of employment contracts allowed when there is a shortage of resources? No, not any longer. Unless of course you're the right person. Should hiring information be kept confidential? Sure. Unless it's too hard, then it's no problems that random people know more details about why certain people did or did not get the job than the candidates themselves! Why make confidential information hard to access when it's so much easier to just share it on a network drive with free access for everyone?

Yours faithfully,

Kevin [who is not] the backbencher