So, I Put In My Two-Week Notice...

Flor Carabez
Jul 25, 2022
6 min read

That's right. For those of you that read my post 5 Reasons Why You Should Chuck the Deuces to Your Employer, I can safely say now that I was actively searching for a different place to continue my career because of those 5 reasons.

Before I go on, let me just set the tone that this is not intended to be an advising or guiding piece. I thought I would just share some of my real-life stories with my followers to show that I am human, and therefore, am also learning through trial and error, and observation.

What I am hoping is that if you are debating leaving your employer, and it's because of the 5 reasons I mentioned in my previous post (even if it's one more reason), this will give you the reassurance that the grass can definitely be greener on the other side.

Now, back to the story...

So I turned 29 this past April, and I would've made my 4-year mark this upcoming August, except, I refused to believe that the toxicity I was experiencing is the same across the entire Higher Educational field, so I decided to look for a new place of employment.

In the almost four years working at the College, the one constant I experienced was change. Working in Higher Education, especially on the financial aid side, policies and procedures are changing all the time. Sometimes the changes were due to Federal and/or State changes, sometimes it was because the school wanted change. In either case, those of us serving the students were always to blame.

Despite and (probably) because of the constant inculpation, I started looking for solutions as soon as I joined the team.

Why?

Because as a first-generation student of color that went through the systems, I understand. The amount of jargon and characters used on documents students need to sign is stressful, to say the least. And in some cases, this is the first time a young person has seen a comma on a bill that is their responsibility.

I remember being told time and time again,

Go to college.

You have to go to college.

If you go to college you will be successful.

You need to go to college to get a job.

Mija, tienes que seguir la escuela. No sabes cuanto quisiera yo poder ir.

Do you see my hands? This is why you need to go to college. So you won't have to work outside or depend on a man, ever.

Everyone meant well, but damn! That's a shit-ton of pressure to put on a young person.

Teachers, parents, counselors, the 7 Gods ( I'm exaggerating), everyone, and their mother was on repeat about going to college. So yes, I went to college.

The getting-accepted part wasn't hard. Just write some essays, fill out some applications (this actually helped me memorize my Social Security number), and wait for the decision letters to come back.

Decision letters arrived and I chose the school, my boyfriend, at the time was at (I forewarned y'all, I'm human and have made mistakes).

Everything after my acceptance letter is a huge blur.

I don't remember signing my name on any loan paperwork.

I don't remember meeting with any advisers, at all.

And I don't remember even trying to calculate how much school was going to cost until I got the bill in the mail.

When the bill arrived, I told my mom I needed a private loan because the loans I had received didn't cover all of my cost. So off we go to our local Chase branch to borrow a student loan with a fluctuating interest that makes it impossible to even hit the principle balance now.

And meanwhile, I'm worried about paying for my first semester, I'm also worried about the second letter I received about my academic probation 🙃 (which I didn't tell my parents about at the time because they could still whoop me, and I was embarrassed).

Finally, the loan goes through and I register for the Spring, once again, without seeking help of an adviser.

How did I know what classes to take you ask? Well, I asked my friends what classes they were taking and just enrolled into those same ones. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Long story short, I did not make it out of academic probation after that second semester, and ended up needing a second private loan to cover the second semester balance. So here I go, again with my mom (who doesn't speak English well at the time), to sign my life away on yet another life-draining private loan.

And then came the letter of my dismissal which I couldn't keep from my parents because, well, I couldn't stay on campus if I wasn't attending... (post for another day)

So that sums up my WHY. I care because I get it and I don't want others to have to go through this process on a trial-and-error bases if it can be avoided.

How?

I realized the reoccurring issues by listening to the students' concerns as they came in for advising, analyzing the situations that called for us to reach out to the students (those that had outstanding issues but never came to ask for help), and reflecting on my own experiences.

As I continued learning policies that impacted the students we met with and was able to differentiate the institutional policies from the Federal and State, I started asking questions.

You'd be surprised how much of an impact a simple question can make.

By asking questions, I was able to:

Get a form created that replaces the FAFSA for students that are ineligible to apply for aid
Have the department host an annual Mural competition in which the winner receives a stipend
Have some scholarships increased for students undergoing financial hardship
Start creating a customized financial wellness online program for the College

just to name a few.

Working with students so closely is what's helped me continue my brainstorming on bettering the college-going process. And for the first couple of years, my advocacy was really creating change. Documents and policies were updated and created to make some of our processes more inclusive, even our culture shifted to empower the rest of the team to advocate for students and push for empathy.

I was even promoted three times and found my niche in financial wellness, which I was allowed to keep as my specialty despite my title changes.

It wasn't until I decided to start my own financial wellness online platform that I realized how my employer was taking advantage of my fire.

Here I am, consistently going above and beyond, thinking,

when the opportunity arises I will be able to apply for a managerial role and be a strong candidate.

After all, I had been told various times to be patient, that my time would come, and that I would make such a great impact as a manager.

Well, the opportunity came, but for someone else...literally.

I had heard of nepotism happening in the department in the past, but I thought our department leaders had learned from those mistakes...joke's on me I guess.

And on top of that, I started getting so many roadblocks with my program.

You can't publish any lessons until it goes through the Strategic Marketer.

You can't hire a student employee until the manager approves the job description.

This project may need to be managed by a different department.

In the meantime, the entire team is going through a horrendous "training", that should've just been called a "come watch all the managers try to figure out how this is all going to work" meeting, because the first two months of these so-called "trainings" were just that.

There's nothing worse than walking into a 9 am meeting to your bosses cackling away as they waste your time.

Actually, I lied...

There's nothing worse than trying to get your boss to allow International students to apply for institutional funds and have her say,

we can't allow them to apply because it's just now what this was made for.

or you advocating for a housing scholarship for students that shouldn't commute to school because the area in which they live in is so dangerous, and having her tell you,

I understand and wish we could do more, but we're not a charity.

My career became a job, and every morning I would wake up calculating if I had enough sick time to call in. I just couldn't accept how disgusting my work environment became. I would show up and have my door closed the entire eight hours, unless I had students to meet with.

My entire motivation and drive shut down.

I gave it a couple of months, but things progressively worsened, so I became intentional in my job search to find a place where I can continue to grow.

I was so intentional, that I started taking things from my office home before I even got any calls for interviews.

Now, here I am counting down the days to start my new chapter.

Wanna know what reassured me it was a good decision to leave?

When I gathered the team together to announce my two-week notice (after letting my boss know first, obviously), she repeatedly yelled to the team,