Me and co worker want to resign, should we do it on the same day?

[Hollsmaur]

There has only ever been 3 people in the department I work in - me, my supervisor and my coworker. We have a “head of department” above us and just recently had a new manager above the supervisor and under head of dep. 

I was promoted to a senior member of the department, basically being assigned more tasks than my coworker and covering my supervisor in times of absence which I really enjoyed up until a few months ago. I get paid around £100 a month more than my coworker and at least £5000 less per annum than my supervisor. 
 

my supervisor went off and had a knee operation, and was assigned for roughly 8 weeks off. I was fine with this, until she just never came back. 3 months passed and she was still not well enough to come back.  I know this is of no fault of her own, but the pressure started to hit me, as we had an audit to pass, which she was expecting to be back for. Turns out she was behind on all of her tasks, so as well as having to do an audit when I’ve not been trained to do so, I also had to do her unfinished tasks that I hadn’t been trained to do either. My new department manager just told me to do it anyway so that we didn’t “fail” the audit, even though I had expressed concerns I hadn’t done it before and didn’t know what I was doing. 
 

this new manager knew nothing about the work we do or our routine as a department so as you can probably imagine, this got frustrating. I already had my own tasks to keep on top of without having to do the extras, and worse of it all.. my supervisor and me kept in contact so she knew what I was going through, and only half heartedly helped me. I’d ask her a question and she’d answer with “I think” or “I don’t know” so I was really up against it, I had to work things out for myself. 
 

I got really burnt out, I had no extra pay, and once we passed the audit, I just got a thanks over email and no other praise, so I had to go on sick leave, as it was just damaging my mental health at this point. I have been on sick leave for 6 weeks, found out my supervisor has resigned without coming back, she’s not even said goodbye to us. So of course that just leaves me and my coworker to pick the pieces up with no proper training, our management not knowing the job either - we have no support system.

 

I have decided to leave and focus on my studies for now - My coworker has worked insanely hard to work on his own whilst I’ve been off, they’ve still piled on work to him regardless and he’s just got on with it, with no praise or support. Because of this, my coworker is now burned out and stressed, and as soon as I’ve told him im leaving, he also wants to leave because it would just be a mess of a department which he knows he will be expected to fix regardless. 
 

im planning to hand in my resignation tomorrow, should he do the same? We have both communicated we don’t want to work for the company again, but we understand this could effect references in the future. As long as we follow our terms in contract, they can’t stop us can they? 
 

we just both know they will use us until the day we leave, so wanna make sure neither one of us is left to deal with it 

[Starlight925]

Do you have another job lined up?

My advice:  Resign without a thought of your coworker.  Whether you both happen to resign on the same day or not, is not your concern.  
  Just do it professionally.  Work up until your very last day, and do your absolute best. 
  Do not burn a bridge. 
Even if you never want to work for this company again, you never know who you will run into again in the future.

For your own self-worth, put your best foot forward until you are gone, but make sure you will have other employment before you do anything.

[Lambert]

I would do what is best for me.   Your job, the relationship with the company and your managers are yours,  not yours and your co-workers.

Make decisions for yourself. Speak only for yourself.  as @Starlight925 suggests give notice, be professional, and don't burn bridges.

Your professional reputation is something you carry throughout your career.  Make sure you protect it. You just never know who you will cross paths with again. 

Write a resignation letter, don't bad mouth the company, take the high road. Part ways professionally and then move on with your life. 

[boltnrun]

I agree 100%. Don't give a long explanation as to why you're leaving. Simply write something like "Thank you for the opportunity to learn new skills. I appreciate my tenure with the company. I have decided to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Please accept this as notification of my resignation. My last date of employment will be MO/DAY/YEAR." Plain and simple.

If they ask for an exit interview, just repeat that you have decided to pursue other opportunities that you feel will be a better fit for your skill set.

As for your coworker, that has no bearing on when you choose to resign. The company should be professional enough to be able to find replacements. 

[lostandhurt]

Short term satisfaction is nice but will it really change the culture at that company? Is there anyone left there you care about?  In the long term it would be best to follow the advice above and be professional even though they treated you like a number and were not professional themselves.

 As far as your coworker goes I agree your choices are yours as well as your timing to leave just like their are their own.  It is up to each of you to decide but do what is best for yourselves, not some I will show you or we will teach you a lesson type of thing.  They will not change, there will be no repercussions for management and you will have burned a bridge for no reason. 

This unfortunately is the culture in business these days where people are promoted that have no business being in charge of a department or people but they have a degree or sweet talk their way up the ladder and dump their work onto those below.  Instead of promoting the best and brightest they promote those that will be the least threat to their position.

Also they cannot stop you from resigning as long as you have not received prepayment for services.

 Good luck and let us know how it all works out.

Lost