A Year
This weekend we took Jonah to the kids Christmas party put on by my office. He had a fantastic time even though he has no idea why the guy in the red suit was sitting around passing out wrapped parcels. In fact, since he could *see* the swimming pool from where santa passed out his gifts, Jonah had no interest in anything but staring down at the water.
A couple of weeks ago we went to a tree trimming party. (The same one we went to last year where Jonah broke the glass ball in his mouth…) This time there were no medical emergencies, unless you want to count Alisha’s drunkenness, but I’m pretty sure the only medical attention she received that night was from her very qualified EMT husband.
A year ago I left my last job. I didn’t write about it very much at the time but looking back now I wish I had. I remember hating that place so much. I remember driving to work in tears, so upset that I had to endure another day of the Worst Workplace Ever. And then to top it all off I was asked to do unreasonable things. And when the camel’s back was finally broken and I made the decision to walk, I was ASKED TO LEAVE QUIETLY.
Quiet is the opposite of what I am, so when I was forced to walk out of that building without saying goodbye to my friends, my co-workers, the people who threw me the only baby shower my kid had because I knew NO ONE when I moved to this country, I was shocked.
There are so many things I would have done differently if I were to do it over again. I would have chosen a different department to work in. I suspect the entire company is not run the way that specific department is run. I would have gone to HR to resign, and not to my (former) manager, who has forever lost my respect, not that she gives a damn. I would have looked Really Hard for a different place to work when I came back from mat leave. There were indicators that this place wasn’t the happy home I was looking for but I chose to ignore them.
Why do we do that? Try to convince ourselves that things are really better than they are? If we buy into our circumstances does that just make bad ones more tolerable or is there scientific evidence that lemonade can be had?
A year ago I listened to my instinct and walked away from an awful situation. With no plan in place I quietly left.
Today things are good.
