Will I get paid if I leave today?

September 2, 2007 2:09 PM

I took a temporary night job that I thought would be easy. I worked 2 nights, but quickly found it is horrible. Specifically it involves a lot of manual labor that I wasn't expecting and I am in pain and too exhausted to work my day job. I want to quit now and save my body, rather than give my two weeks. I don't care about the reference, but will I see a paycheck in the mail?

I told the manager yesterday night that I wanted to quit and she said "You are required to give 2 weeks notice." But I know that would be polite, but not legally required. They always have 2 people scheduled for a shift, so I won't be totally screwing them. This is in California and is for a national chain hotel.

posted by anonymous to law & government (10 comments total)

...but will I see a paycheck in the mail?

They have to pay you for the hours you worked, regardless of whether you give them notice that you are quitting (i.e. even if you walked off the job with an "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" they'd still owe you a paycheck for the hours you worked).
posted by amyms at 2:20 PM on September 2, 2007

IANAL, but I have quit some jobs. Brief searching says that california is an at-will state. You need to find out if you have a contract which specifies this, otherwise you're free to leave in the same way that your employer is free to fire you. And no, they are absolutely not allowed to withhold pay for hours worked.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 2:28 PM on September 2, 2007

California is in fact an at-will state. As far as I know, you're certainly free to leave without notice, as they're free to fire you without notice. And they are required to pay you for every hour that you've worked.

That doesn't mean that they'll make it easy on you. If they decide to be jerks about it, they can just hold on to your check while you ask them for it, I believe in order to actually get it out of them you'd have to report or even sue them -- which is quite a pain in the ass to go through for a check. So just beware of that.

What if you gave them less than 2 weeks notice? If that's the soul-crushing part for you. Why not split the difference and offer them a week? Although, after working there for 2 nights and hating it, that almost seems unecessary. And any manager that would outright lie to you about California employment law is either severely underinformed about it, or downright unscrupulous.
posted by pazazygeek at 2:39 PM on September 2, 2007

I would like to note that if you didn't realize there was so much manual labor, the hiring manager didn't do their job. Moreover, if you are in pain (and not just muscle ache from being out of shape), it is possible you have an injury. It is quite easy to damage your back lifting improperly for instance. I'm not saying you should sue the employer, but if you told the manager both that you weren't expecting so much heavy lifting and you are in a lot of pain, he might be less stupid and inclined to get rid of you sooner rather than try to hold you for a week. In general, an employer has to be in a major crunch to want to force someone to stay for two weeks at something they hate -- way too much risk of the disgruntled employee doing something stupid or malicious.

And I definitely don't think they can legally hold your pay even if you quit without notice. See this FAQ page. It seems to suggest you must be paid immediately if you give 72 hours notice.
posted by R343L at 3:40 PM on September 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Just. Don't. Go.

They can't withhold your pay and will most likely give it to you in due time so as to have you out of their hair once and for all. They won't be happy about it, but if the job is as bad as you say, others have quit before and they're definitely used to it.
posted by hermitosis at 4:16 PM on September 2, 2007

They must pay you. If they don't pay you, you have every right to take them to small claims court or to file a wage claim. I'm not exactly sure about California's laws, but most every state has a process, as does the Federal Department of Labor.
posted by emilyv at 4:24 PM on September 2, 2007

Also, yeah, if they have an HR person and they hear that you didn't expect labor and now have pains you'll be gone no problems. The last thing that they want is a comp claim. From your side, if the pain persists you might want to talk to the appropriate kind of lawyer for on-the-job injuries.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:12 PM on September 2, 2007

Under California law if you quit they are required to give you your last paycheck within 72 hours (or face the possibility of waiting time penalties from the Labor Commissioner).
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 5:32 PM on September 2, 2007

Everyone is correct, which is not to say that businesses don't ever try to screw someone out of their final check, and if they do it's a matter of how much trouble you want to go through to get the money. Being that you say it's for a chain, it is overwhelmingly likely they won't violate the law by withholding your pay.

Welcome to the happier world that appears when you quit the the job that turned out to be more horrible than you expected (or became suddenly horrible due to some unforseen circumstance) without prior notice! It's a proud day in a young person's life. Every true worker has at least one or two of these notches in their belt.
posted by nanojath at 10:01 PM on September 2, 2007

They'll pay you. I've quit before and that's that. If you want, tell them that you've found a higher paying job now, but you must take it now to get it. They'll STILL rant and rave at you, but they'll pay you.
posted by xammerboy at 8:15 AM on September 3, 2007