To want to leave my new job?

[nodilemma]

My first time on AIBU, and I've named changed as well. Having a real dilemma about my new job. Sorry this is long.

I started a few months ago at an organisation that has been most prominantly associated with the Jimmy Saville scandal.... I won't name it, but it shouldn't be difficult to guess. I joined just days before everything started to break in the news and although it doesn't exactly impact my job, it has affected how I am feeling about working there. I am usually very excited about a new role and was estatic about this one before I joined, but since I started it's gone downhill quickly. I'm now feeling very negative about the organisation. Since joining it's been in the news regularly over one issue or another. Its culture and management has been publicly berated (and after my brief experience working there I agree with the criticisms). My morning commutes includes reading stories of child sex abuse and 9/10 my organisation is also mentioned. Until now, however, I've tried to talk myself out of that negativity on the basis that all this doesn't affect my role directly and these terrible stories happened decades ago, so are not a reflection on the organisation today.

However, on Friday I read that the last time an incident of sexual abuse took place on the premise was in 2006, and I feel somehow like this is a tipping point for me. I don't know if it is the build-up of a few months of feeling blah about working there or if this new information really does make a difference, but I am now considering resigning.

AIBU? In terms of my own career prospects, I would easily find another job and I could come up with a completely acceptable reason for leaving so soon as well, so I don't think there is risk on my side. But I am wondering if I am really that principled or whether this is just a massive case of overreaction (possibly brought on by PMT). So - AIBU to want to resign?

[MumVsKids]

YABU - it's much easier to find another job when you've already got one

[nodilemma]

ah yes. true! but so should I start looking elsewhere, on the basis of all this? or am I overreacting and should I stick with it warts and all?

[INeedThatForkOff]

Follow your conscience. I would.

[HollyBerryBush]

If you don't like the BBC, and can move into another media provider then leave

[fatfingers]

YABU. Although it is demoralising when your workplace is under constant criticism ask any teacher I think you are overreacting. Stop reading the reports for a few weeks and then decide whether you enjoy your job.

[nodilemma]

fatfingers had an employer in the past (completely different industry) that suffered similar public criticism, yet never felt demoralised there. But you are right, I should stop reading about it and then see how I feel.

[gobbin]

You are over-thinking this. Without thinking about all the excess baggage, are you still enjoying the actually job you are doing every day? Unless it is your reaponsibility for rescuing the public image of your employer, I'd leave it to those whose responsibility it is and get on with the job you hopefully enjoy.

If the job itself has turned out to be more crap than you hoped, consider moving on.

[AgentZigzag]

How about giving yourself a set amount of time and if you still feel the same then have a rethink?

Lots of the organisations where these crimes took place have put a lot of emphasis on them changing since the time they happened, but I can understand why 2006 would concern you. Some of the people around at the time might still be there (not committing crimes or anything, but possibly not having said what they knew at the time), and being so close to it when it's in the media so much is bound to play on your mind.

[CanIHaveAPetGiraffePlease]

Completely overthinking it. Massively.

[MidnightMasquerader]

I recently resigned from a very good (on paper), well-paid job because I hated it, was miserable and simply did not respect the organisation (public service). That is, I didn't respect the culture within the organisation, as opposed to the work they did.

It was a very, very tough decision and I probably stayed longer than I should have in coming to that decision, but now having left, in hindsight, I know it was the right one.

I didn't have a job to go to. I will start job hunting this week and am fortunate enough to have a DH who is able to support me.

My rationale was that just because somone might think you are right for a job, the job won't necessarily be right for you. And this isn't something you can discover until you've been in it for a while.

In addition, I felt it was more sensible and beneficial to leave sooner rather than later - admit it wasn't for me, and search for something that would make me happy.

Good luck with whatever decision you make. :)

[janey68]

You've said yourself, what happened in the past is no reflection on the people working there now or the organisation as it is. So it makes no sense to leave on those grounds.

[thereinmadnesslies]

I worked at the BBC at the time Greg Dyke quit and all the soul searching and reorganisation at the start of Mark Thompson's reign. Morale was poor and there was loads of infighting within teams. It felt like there was two BBCs - the one with the amazing reputation, history and culture, and the one being dragged into the gutter.

focus on the things that made you want to work there - probably not the pay . No one can change the past, but you can influence the future of the BBC to make sure that all the Savill et al horrors can not occur again. Working there does not make you complicit and the BBC is far greater than one sleb.

[Avuncular]

You're probably not the only one in the organisation feeling that way.

I tell my driving pupils, agonising or beating themselves up over some perceived error (large or small) You can't fix the past

You sound as though you have a positive attitude to life in general, so unless you feel the situation and atmosphere in the organisation is irretrievable I think I would muck in and try to help my colleagues and the organisation as a whole turn itself around. If nothing else, it will be character-forming!

Yes, and I do know what it's like to be in irretrievable situations. Railtrack went into administration 3 weeks after I joined HQ. I eventually got fired.

Re JS - my feeling echoes the final lines from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet : All, all are punished So sad; when our DC were young we all revelled weekly in Jim'll Fix It.

Very nasty taste in mouth now.

[nodilemma]

Thanks, really, thanks for your advice. I was apprehensive about posting on here, but so glad I did. You've hit the nail on the head. It's not actually what happened that is making me want to resign. It was years ago and I'm not complicit(!) But it's the fallout that is affecting me.

I think what you've described thereinmadnesslies is exactly what is going on now. I am new and I haven't even had a chance to settle in and find my feet and immediately I've been landed in the middle of poor morale and massive infighting. That's what has made/making me disrespect the place and want to leave. It's exactly like you said MidnightMasquerader I don't respect the culture of the organisation. But, it's difficult not to conflate this with the scandal itself, as it is probably the reason why the culture is so rubbish right now.

At least if I worked on the production side, I could just go on and say oh well, it's crap but I can concentrate on making this amazing show. But my role is on the business/management/corporate side of things, so this does matter.

So now what? Do I bide my time and see if it gets better? or cut my loses as MidnightMasquerader courageously did?!

[Avuncular]

Ah .... massive infighting ..... smile politely and quietly look for the exit ......

[RedHelenB]

With safeguarding children ALL organisations are now well versed in their responsibilities & will have chaperones on set etc. Even childrens football teams, dance teachers , churches etc have to have a named person . Newspapers want to sell papers so they will keep it going for as long as they think people want to read about it.

[HKat]

I think you need to work out how long you could cope without having a job before deciding to leave. If you can manage financially until you find another one, then fair enough. But bear in mind what the job market is like at the moment, and how long that may take you. Personally I would ride it out longer - yes there's a lot of negativity at the moment but these things usually blow over. If it doesn't, and having given it a shot, well then, you know it's really not for you. Or I would at the least line something else up before leaving.

But at the end of the day you have to do what's right for you.

[Sallyingforth]

I think you are most definitely BU. The organisation will be trying hard to put things right, and your own future work will help. Wouldn't like to feel that you are making a positive contribution to the company you were once glad to have joined?

[DolomitesDonkey]

Some people knew for sure, but tens of thousands who've worked there over the decades didn't.

As others have said, it's a few bad apples. Like one shitty midwife is perhaps not a damnation of the NHS and one shitty teacher doesn't make education irrelevant.

[PickledInAPearTree]

Is it a case that they need good people with morals in the organisation like yourself?

Obviously you are the type of person that would act on anything that troubled them. In the past that clearly hasn't happened.

An organisation itself isn't rotten its the people therein.