Conference 7.286::digital

>there happens to be a Distributor for Digital in this country.  I may go work
>for them.  Is there any way to make Digital view this as a transfer?

This is probably the best thing for you to pursue, because it prevents you from
losing benefits (such as vacation accrual rate) when you come back.  Your chance
of finding a solution also depends on your own area of expertise.

Each distributor has a somewhat different relationship with Digital depending
on a number of factors, including local laws.

You need to talk to:

	1. Your local personnel GROUP manager (not just the PSA or rep).
	2. The (probably GIA) personnel Group manager, and maybe some other
	   managers such as the GIA Software Services Manager.
	3. People you might know at the distributor.  Are there already any
	   DEC employees "on assignment" with the distributor?  Does the
	   distributor want to buy a DEC Software Resident?

Your own current manager should help you to get in touch with the right people.

	I am one of the lucky ones who have left Digital and returned, so I
 guess I did something right.  Here are some general guidelines I've used with
 success regarding terminating one job and starting another (these are culled
 from a Sylvia Porter article published many years ago.  They work.):

	o	No matter how miserable you've been in your job, never express
		dissatisfaction with the company or your peers in your letter
		of resignation (which should always be submitted).  Stress
		how much you've learned here and how much you enjoyed your
		tenure.

	o	Provide useful work right up to the final minutes of
		your employment.  Don't become a slug the last two weeks of
		the job and spoil X years of good, competent work.  This
		applies especially if you are breaking in someone who will
		replace you.  Be as helpful and co-operative as possible.

	o	Don't brag about your new job to your peers.

	o	Breach no confidences that you have held.

	o	Say nothing derogatory about your immediate supervisor.  He's
		being evaluated during this exercise.  Such statements have
		a way of coming back and haunting _you_.

	o	Stress that you've made good friends here and that you hope
		to stay in touch with them.

	o	Give more than 4 weeks notice if possible.


			Good luck in your new venture.		--Mike

    .2's advice is good.  I also left DEC and returned.
    
    To help you find a new job, and also, in the event you
    should want to return to DEC, be sure to get copies of
    all your performance reviews.
    
    When I rejoined DEC, after just 2 years away (back to 2 weeks vacation,
    sigh!) my personal file was empty and my performance reviews had
    been discarded.  However, since I had copies of all of them, I gave
    them to my new boss-to-be, and that helped quite a bit.
    
    Good luck,
    	Rich

    I doubt that this will happen in your situation, but some of the
    people in our office that have left to join competitors got some
    interesting treatment.
    
    At the moment that they informed management that they were taking
    a job with IBM or Pyramid for example, security was called and they
    were escorted to their desk to clean out their stuff, and then escorted
    to the door.  It was a rather impersonal process I'm sorry to say.
    
    It seems to me that if an employee moving to a competitor wanted
    to do damage to DEC, they would have done it prior to submitting
    their resignation.  But then, I can be pretty ignorant some times.
    
    With regard to the previous comments about being positive...do it!
    The expression "Don't burn your bridges behind you..." really applies
    here.
    
    Good Luck,
    
    Doug

	re: .2

	Yes!

	I must admit, though, that sometimes it is difficult to focus during
	the last n weeks. At my last job, I had something specific to do, and
	so I was sufficiently busy. When your tasks are more nebulous, though,
	your initiative kinda gets sapped.

	NEVER, NEVER, NEVER say anything nasty in exit interviews. You may need
	the good graces of a former boss, or his/her boss, or an acquaintance of
	the above, in the future.

	I have only broken the "sweetness and light" rule once. I made an excep-
	tion because I felt I could do some good by telling my boss's-boss's-
	boss why he had lost 7 people in the last six months (almost all his
	senior staff). It was done on the condition of being anonymous, and
	he expressed amazement at the "sweetness and light" rule, but under-
	stood the necessity for it. He and I are still buddies, and amazingly
	enough, so are the people I slammed in our tete-a-tete.

	But I got lucky (I think) ...in retrospect, I shouldn't have done it.


--axe--

re:.4

That's pretty much a standard in the business world.  When I resigned from 
Wang to take my job with DEC, I already knew that my 2 week notice was 
moot.   Boss said good-bye/good luck, please leave as soon as your personal
possesions have been assembled for our inspection!  

                                               Bob

re being escorted to the door:

I've never left a job to go to a direct competitor, so it's never happened
to me.  But when coworkers did leave my previous employers (a bank, a
timesharing company, a defense contractor, et.al.), they put in their
two weeks.  I had never heard of being escorted to the door until I started
working for Digital.  It may be SOP in the computer industry, but in most
industries, it's too important to get a "brain dump" of the departing
employee not to trust him.

	I left DEC once to go to work for a competitor. No one walked me to the
	door and I worked 2-3 weeks after telling my boss where I was going.
	I guess maybe it depends (on what I don't know). My new (at the time)
	employeer was surprised that DEC didn't show me the door. But then
	again when I left them to come back to DEC they let me put in my
	time as well.

				Alfred

    
    I came to Digital from a company that considered Digital to be a
    competitor so I was asked for my car keys and escorted off the premises
    by security.
    
    I was quite pleased: the contractual notice period was three months
    (this is in England) and so I got three months pay from them and
    started work with DEC after the weekend.
    
    Even better the three months pay in lieu of notice was tax free...
    it paid for my vacation that year... rather a nice leaving present
    I thought.
    
    /. Ian .\