Small reasons for big decisions

November 16, 2006 11:39 AM

My company is considering doing pop-up and pop-under ads on the web. Should I mention it as my reason for quitting?

I'm not sure if they will be ads that we buy, or that appear on our site. Regardless, I refuse to be associated with such lameness and I think it represents an extremely low standard of business quality.

posted by rhizome to work & money (19 comments total)

I'm not sure I understand... why wouldn't you mention it?
posted by trip and a half at 11:42 AM on November 16, 2006

Are you quitting because they are considering it, or only if they decide to do it?
posted by arcticwoman at 11:43 AM on November 16, 2006

Well, the mere mention of the possibility is what put this question up, so "considering" is close enough, it just depends on whether a new job happens before "do it" happens. This is also a "new marketing guy" development: it's his first week.

@trip: bridge-burning concerns.
posted by rhizome at 11:48 AM on November 16, 2006

Are you already planning on quitting regardless of whether this reason is given? Are there others?

If you do cite this as your reason when you quit, remember that this is in an effort for you to take the high road, morally. Which means that the way in which you conduct yourself and discuss the matter should reflect that. If you get angry or emotional, or voice your opinions in a negative way, it will just seem as if you were looking for an excuse and this was a convenient one, which means they'll be less inclined to actually value your opinion on the this issue.
posted by hermitosis at 11:50 AM on November 16, 2006

rhizome: I quit because I think pop-ups are shady and I don't want to associate myself with a company that uses them.
Your Employer: Oh, we didn't realize you felt so strongly. We don't want to lose you, so we'll use some other form of web advertising.
rhizome: Uh, I still quit because I got another job anyway.

Avoid the above scenario.
posted by mullacc at 12:07 PM on November 16, 2006

If it's your reason for quitting, by all means tell them that it's the case.

However, if you're really leaving to get more money elsewhere, you don't want to walk into the scenario mullacc outlined above. You could certainly mention it as one of the reasons you think that you're no longer a match, but if it's not the reason for your departure, don't imply that it is.

In short, I don't see why there's any reason to tell your boss anything but the truth on your way out the door.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:09 PM on November 16, 2006

Just adding to what mullacc said above, you should also be prepared to answer the following: "Oh, we didn't realize this form of advertising was so bad. Here, take a look at our web marketing goals - what do you suggest we do to reach them without crossing any ethical line?"
posted by nkyad at 12:13 PM on November 16, 2006

Should I mention it as my reason for quitting?

It seems like you have nothing to gain by doing this and several scenarios where it could hurt you.
posted by jca at 12:14 PM on November 16, 2006

Don't tell them. If personal pride won't allow you to stay on at this company, swallow it at least long enough to give HR and your boss the usual BS on your way out. When they get called for a reference, you want your prospective new employer to hear "Rhizome, great guy, he left to pursue some other opportunities," not "Rhizome, that nutjob, he walked out because he disagreed with our advertising tactics." Because, well, pride and ethics aren't particularly valued in the business world.

Besides, if the decision makers there didn't care about your opinion (or common sense, or decency - I mean, pop-up ads?) when you worked there, they sure as hell won't start to when you have one foot out the door. They may say they do, but when a company waits for exit interviews to try to assess employee morale...there are bigger problems than you'll be able to help them with.
posted by a young man in spats at 12:19 PM on November 16, 2006

Maybe you should discuss alternatives to pop-ups before you quit? First-week-on-the-jobbers often throw around a bunch of ideas to see the reaction to them (and also, to prove that they have ideas), so there is a very good possibility that this won't happen anyway, and you'll be out of a job.
posted by Kololo at 12:50 PM on November 16, 2006

Do people really respond to pop-up or pop-under ads except that they become increasingly annoyed by them? Be a hero. Explain to the lame-brained that they would be wasting their money, and alienating their customers. I'm sure they've been sold a pile of shite about how many people respond to these ads etc., but guess what it is still shite no matter how high the pile is.
posted by Gungho at 1:00 PM on November 16, 2006

If your at the job now, you should make your feelings known. I was frustrated dealing with a marketing consultant, but successfully kept a place from using spam and some of her other horrible marketing ideas. There are some good, strong arguments for not allowing pop ups and for not buying them on other sites.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 1:02 PM on November 16, 2006

You might also want to explain why pop-ups/unders are a bad thing. People who don't love the web or spend all day on it might not even understand that someone could have an emotional reaction to such a thing, let alone an ethical objection.

While it makes perfect sense to me, there might well be people on the team who think "quitting over popups is like quitting because you don't like the color of the site".

Obviously, you'll have a lot of factors in your decision (other opportunities, pay, general happiness) but from a standpoint looking strictly at the job you have now, if you really want to stop them from making a crappy web experience, you'll have more impact staying on the team and educating them than you will quitting and having them think you're a diva or overly fussy.

If you stay, here's a suggestion: "These ads are ineffective, increasingly unsuccessful given the fact that all modern browsers include pop-up blockers, result in unqualified traffic because most clicks are accidental, and associate the advertised brands with nuisance and interruption, which hurt the brand image. I think we can do something more effective and innovative."
posted by anildash at 1:04 PM on November 16, 2006 [3 favorites]

Sorry, but that sounds like an ass-hole thing to do.

If you don't like popups, lets them know. But don't try to pull that holier-than-thou bs.
posted by mphuie at 1:34 PM on November 16, 2006

Tell them what kind of ads you DO want to do -- stuff that they're not doing, of course. If you have to tell them what you don't like about the place, come up with some euphemisms, assuming you're not trying to piss them off.

If you really feel compelled to express your distaste, do so after you've found a job that suits you. I agree with jca's comment: speaking your mind in this particular way won't benefit you at all, and could end up being a bad thing.
posted by wryly at 1:55 PM on November 16, 2006

If you feel strongly about something, and if it's not irrelevant (it's not here), and if you won't be wasting people's time by talking about it (you won't), then I think you really ought to say something. It's important to do so without judging audience -- they believe what they believe for good reasons; maybe you have information they don't, maybe they have information you don't -- since nothing closes ears like an impression that you don't like or understand the listener.

But we have to talk to each other about these things; otherwise, how will anything change? Legislation? Rulings from the king?

I regularly chicken out about things like this, but I'm trying to figure out how to do better at it myself. So far, I've figured out that I shouldn't try to talk to people at whom I'm angry or when I'm feeling impatient. But please, don't avoid talking about your strongly-held beliefs just because it's difficult or risky. Better we should have a lot of uncomfortable conversations than some of the alternatives I can imagine.
posted by amtho at 3:45 PM on November 16, 2006

Put another way: how else will they even have a chance to learn? Even if it's not that likely they'll listen to you, there is a chance. Please don't just assume they're intransigent.
posted by amtho at 3:51 PM on November 16, 2006

Try everything you can to affect the decision from the inside. If that fails, then you can quit because you felt you weren't listened to and felt you had no impact, in addition to their usage of popups.

If their do a 180 during your exit interview, and decide to forget popups, quit anyway. You should not stay at a shop where they do not value your opinion.
posted by gmarceau at 4:22 PM on November 16, 2006

People who don't love the web or spend all day on it might not even understand that someone could have an emotional reaction to such a thing, let alone an ethical objection.

Yeah, I really think that what's obvious to you might not be obvious to an older-generation executive who wants to give the new marketing person a shot. Such an executive might actually be interested in knowing that many people, especially among the tech-literate, find them massively annoying, and that many web browsers try their hardest to block them automatically. In fact, if the boss in question actually uses firefox or safari, they may not even realize how many popups are being blocked. If you think about it, popups are not all that much more annoying than commercials every 15 minutes that automatically get like 6db louder than the show you're watching, but people have just come (for reasons I don't really understand, personally) to accept this other annoyance.
posted by advil at 4:35 PM on November 16, 2006