The Last Straw - Part Two

For Part One, Click Here.

When last we were here, the boss had yelled and screamed and called me everything but nice.

I got home that Monday night, and the usual "how was your day" from OldMan set me off. I cried and cried and told him what had happened. We talked about what in the world might have happened that the boss had gone from telling me how irreplaceable I was and how she depended on me and how grateful she was to have me to now calling me names and accusing me of all kinds of nonsense.

OldMan told me to quit. Just go in and turn in my notice then request vacation time for two weeks. Heaven knew I had enough PTO to do it. Actually, I think as of my last day, I had something like thirty days of accrued leave available.

However, I don't quit. I figure out what's wrong and fix it. And I certainly don't quit a job I love. No. I was going to go in on Tuesday and hash it out with Bosslady. We were going to come to terms on whatever it was that was bothering her and I was going to keep doing what I do. There HAD to be some kind of explanation for this. She was angry and thought I'd been ignoring her. After a night to cool off, surely she'd be open for discussion and adult conversation and reconciliation.

Wrong.



The next day, I got in, took my group out to where they needed to be and made arrangements with Anna to work with them so I could get things resolved. I came back to the building and found the boss wasn't even in.
Okay...

I waited and she finally showed up after lunch. And closed her door in my face when she saw me coming down the hall. I am not joking or exaggerating or making this shit up. That happened. She saw me coming, jumped up from her desk and sprinted to shut the door before I got to it.

I waited some more. Eventually, she was going to have to come out. I called, and she sent me to voicemail. I emailed and was ignored.

All day.

At 6, I went home. At that point, I was just staying so she would. She would either have to face me or stay in her office WAAAY past her usual leaving time.

Yeah, I was a little bit angry and maybe being a little passive-aggressive.
What? I feel it was justified.

At the house again, OldMan flipped his shit. I mean, HE yelled and railed at me when he found out I hadn't gotten this taken care of. He tried to take my phone so he could call her himself and tell her I quit. He declared that he was going to take me to work and take her door off the hinges and hold her down if need be until this was done one way or another.

He was livid. I was actually frightened. I mean, I wasn't worried that he was going to smack me around or leave or anything like that. I was scared that he would actually go and find my boss and kidnap her a la 'Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation' - style and bring her to the house to explain what in the hell was wrong with her. I got a couple of beers in him and he mellowed.

The declaration was made that Wednesday was the day. Either I would have this resolved or I would beat a hasty retreat.

Here's the part that makes me cry, even now, almost six months later.

For those of you who know me solely through the blog, you'd be surprised to learn that I am, in all actuality, a ridiculous optimist. I firmly believe that even though I dislike most people, they are inherently good and that when something crazy happens, there have to be extenuating circumstances. No one is really all bad and humans will generally do the right thing given the opportunity. It offsets OldMan's continual pessimism nicely. He always assumes the worst in any situation. If someone cuts him off in traffic, it's a direct slight to his person. It couldn't possibly someone in a hurry to get to a hospital to be with a loved one, it's someone simply out to make OldMan angry. He maintains that believing the best of people will bring me to a sticky end, but I don't think he understands that I can't hate everyone AND think the worst of them simultaneously.

My head would explode.

So, I went to work again on Wednesday with the thought that there had to be something logical to explain what was going on with my boss.

You will not be surprised to hear that I was, once again, very wrong.

I feel like this part of the story sounds like a bad movie scene or ... something, but it happened exactly as I'm about to tell you.

I hid in my office.
Yeah.

I hid until I was sure she was in her office and wouldn't be expecting me. While I was hiding, I went ahead and printed up three copies of my resignation letter. My thought was, "well, if I have this written, I won't need it, but if I don't, then I'm DEFINITELY going to have to quit my job today." So I wrote something brief about my resignation was effective immediately and that the board needed to have a look at how our department was being managed.

I grabbed a couple of things from my office that I might need if I had to leave quickly and stuffed them in my purse. This was one of them:

This hung on the wall in my office for years.
Yes, I made it. 

I pulled Jim and Anna in and let them know I was going to try to get this resolved, but that they needed to be prepared in case things did not go as planned. Both of them, and me, too, honestly, believed that there would be a closed-door meeting in which issues were resolved and we could all go on with our jobs by the end of the day.

At this point, it was time, so I walked into the boss's office and said "we need to talk".

She looked at me and said "I don't have time."

WHAT?! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

"Well, I'm very uncomfortable with the hostility you've displayed toward me recently."

At the word "hostility", she looked up and I could tell I'd hit the button.

The wrong one, but the button.

She immediately lit into me - again - and loudly.

And in front of people this time.

We were back to how I was useless and a problem and how she didn't understand how someone like me could remain employed anywhere, let alone in a management position.

I think I stood there for about thirty seconds with my mouth hanging open. I was quite literally, speechless. Until I wasn't.

Then I yelled.

I screamed at her to stop. Yes, screamed. She had gotten so loud and so angry, it was the best way I could think of to make her at least wait a second before she set in again.

In the lull, I told her I had to go. I told her that OldMan and LovelyGirl had been trying to get me to leave for months, but that I was committed to the facility and everything it was and could be. Unfortunately, she had made my life an absolute living hell for over a year.

At this point, she tried the "oh, I'm so sorry I'm such a terrible person" gambit, and I told her to knock it off, that I wasn't interested.

I said "I quit. Today." I think I was as surprised as she was to hear the words coming out of my mouth.

I actually watched her face go gray. Then green. Her eyes were HUGE. It was every cliched description you always hear but can't always picture.
She didn't say anything for a minute, and then quietly said "over this? You're going to quit over this?"

I looked her in the face and said no.

I was quitting to save myself from her. That she WAS that bad a person.

She recovered nicely here and said she needed it in writing.

I told her she could get a copy from the board of directors.

She said to leave.

I did.

I walked into my office, grabbed my purse and walked out the door.

Out.
The.
Door.

I called OldMan from the car and said "as of 9:43 this morning, I no longer am employed by   C E N S O R E D  " He was his usual amazing self and told me not to worry, just to go home and cuddle tinydog and relax.

I sobbed and sobbed the whole drive home. I'd never done anything like this in my whole life.

News travels fast and the rest of the place knew within an hour.

to be continued...

OldMan's faith in me and support of everything I get into.

Love you, asshole.