Two weeks vs termination vs early departure

At some point I’ll be going through the process. This came to mind, the difference between a termination, two weeks, and a “We’d like you to leave early.”

Almost two years ago I signed on with a sub-prime on a DoD contract. Very poor onboarding experience, over three weeks a red visitor badge (instead of a green one, which they could’ve applied for). This should’ve been a sign. the work environment was loosey-goosey with no structure, by the time I settled down with a new CAC and the run of some basic tasks I realized the job was nowhere near what I was told. Had a talk with the PM who gave me the company line instead of the truth, that same day I was interviewing with a prior client.

I gave two weeks notice to my company the following Monday. I asked the PM if he’d heard, who was visibly pissed. By Friday they had a new sys admin ready for sometime next week.

On Monday the last week I handed off passwords and some scans of a server provided by another coworker, albeit dated. But just to be safe I uploaded copies for perusal. I took Tuesday off, then found out the client decided my last day was that Monday. The client’s PM cited the scans, which were a minor issue.

I explained the situation to my company, who eventually came to understand it for what it really was. Truth be told I was going to do some clean-up for them and then call it early on Wednesday.

So, when it comes time to answer questions about past employment, how best to explain this? I put in my two weeks and the client decided–their words–that my last day was that Monday.

There is no issue from what you have explained. Early release is not unusual for many small employers. Be candid about why you left on your SF86 and don’t worry.

So you should not have uploaded them? If so, they could have fired you even with the 2 weeks notice.

It was neither forbidden nor required for me to upload the updated benchmarks. They weren’t even posted for hand-off on Sharepoint outside of our organization. They were uploaded in case I handed off my laptop and/or other device, forgot to put them somewhere easily accessible, and someone bothered to ask. You know, save any work-in-progress, etc. etc. Data retention.

The scans themselves were done by other contract staff. I was loathe to step on someone’s toes and redo them myself because the specific servers weren’t under my direct supervision. The scans were someone else’s responsibility, someone who had been there longer than myself, and I was not about to step outside the lines when I was already set to leave. The point of the last week was to tie up loose ends and take care of other things, whether my last day would be Friday or sooner. The PM decided on ‘sooner’ because they already had someone in line, which is fine. The way it was handled on their end, however, was less than professional.