Quitting vs. potential future termination

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I've been working as a retail sales associate for the past six months. As someone with ASD, it's probably no surprise that I've struggled performance-wise at the job since the beginning.

Well, today, the assistant manager had a little sit down chat with me. It was mainly a pep talk, but I suspect he was also preparing me for a future termination. He went over his expectations for me and the overall standards he expects from his staff, and that seemed like something managers do in advance of a firing (never been fired, so I don't know for sure).

If I quit now, I can spare myself some humiliation, keep a good reference at work and not have to explain why I was fired to future employers. If I don't quit now and get fired later, I can collect payment in lieu of notice and employee insurance.

I know quitting a job without having one lined up isn't the greatest idea (especially at this time of year), but having a termination in my job history is going to make finding a job - which, everyone here knows, is already really difficult - even more of a challenge. What should I do?

All I can tell you is what happened to me. For over 30 years, I worked essentially in one industry. It was the only thing I had any training or experience at and I loved it. Problem was, because of the nature of the industry itself, the turnover rate was fairly high, even among nuerotypical employees, because businesses frequently changed ownership or underwent top-to-bottom shakeups in an attempt to reinvent themselves, which meant a housecleaning, where the new management would fire an entire staff and replace them. Add to that, my Aspergian abilities to p*ss off management type personalities and it came down to this: Over a 30+ year career, out of 33 jobs, I was fired 28 times. My average was 15 months per job, by which time I would be so stressed out, it would take about 8 months to recover.

If not for unemployment insurance, I would have been homeless many times over.

My philosophy was "If you don't have another job lined up to jump to - MAKE them have to fire you." Never leave voluntarily, because you're not eligible for unemployment benefits if you quit. I'm not saying you should act out to give them a reason, just don't cut your own throat by making it easy for them. Being fired is a lot less embarrassing than begging for change on the street.

You don't have to put a firing on your resume. If you feel like you have to give a reason for leaving, call it 'creative differences' or something - but you don't HAVE to give a reason (although it would be wise to have some sort of BS explanation in your hat in case someone asks you during an interview).

Just FYI, Even if someone has fired you, even if they were a complete @$$h0le about it, don't ever dis them during an interview. No matter how big a douche they were, pretend they were sweetness and light and you just had other ambitions. How you talk about your old bosses is how the prospective boss will expect you to talk about him or her.

Good luck!

This is my position as well.

Unless you have done something deserving of on-the-spot termination, most times you are let go, you can say you were "laid-off" for any number of reasons. Only a jerk will say you were "fired" when their reason for letting you go wasn't for being unable to do the job at all or having broken some serious rules.

Even my last job, the boss ended it saying he wasn't happy with me. It was nothing he didn't know up-front (my AS and not being good with people), but he really wanted me to be more than I said I could be, and he just wanted someone else who could do what he really wanted. We parted saying he needed only a part-time person and not a full-time one....which might be true to some degree. Yeah, I was still "fired," but I don't need to tell people that.

Of course, having worked for the guy as a contractor, I don't get unemployment benefits, and I have a car payment to manage on top of all of this as well. Money is about run out.

Koosh, in what country do you live? Posters may be able to give you better advise if they know if you're in the US or UK, for instance.

I for one have no idea how the UK labor market works.

Now is not the time to quit. Now is the time to send out resumes to other jobs.

DEF.

Look for another job now, then you can leave and have another job.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I've decided to stick through it at least until the year is over. If I get fired before then, c'est la vie.