Quitting

Before my post: Boston, I can't stop watching these updates. I sure hope the 2nd suspect is caught, alive, so that we can determine the reasoning behind this attack and if more are coming. So much is involved in this case, it's crazy. I just don't understand why 19 year old kids from Russia would want to hurt us so badly. Lord help us, help us to catch him and put a stop to these attacks. I am praying for the people in Boston. Stay strong. We will find this guy. God's peace be with all of us.

I have only quit a job once in my life. I don't count Avenue because I was a seasonal employee and simply just said "I won't be back next summer". Okay, now that I say that, I guess it counts as quitting. But c'mon. I only worked Christmas break and summer vacations. They were fine without me.

 I came close to having to quit a babysitting job once, but not because it wasn't a great job, only because I had to begin my year of service with Mercy Volunteer Corps and I wouldn't be able to babysit anymore. But I didn't have to have that conversation because the family was changing things anyways and the dad was going to begin working from home. It was a relief for me, and a relief for them that I wasn't too upset.

The job I quit was a part time position working with at risk teens in a residential setting. Without throwing the organization under the bus, let's just say it was rough. I was hired for something totally different than what I actually ended up doing. My job duties included picking up the teens from school, driving them to the "homework house", picking them up from there, and then sitting around while they ate dinner and did their chores. I worked odd hours (3pm-11pm) and worked every Saturday to drive an hour to pick up one of the girls, drive her to ACT tutoring, and drop her back off at home. Basically, I was a driver. Nothing against that, but it's not what I signed up for. While this was happening, the leadership was falling apart. No one was communicating, people were fighting all the time, and we went through three bosses in the few months I worked there. It was rough. And very tough on the kids. I loved those kids, but hated the job. But I told myself to just suck it up and keep working until I found a full time job elsewhere  I was living with my parents at the time, and I had a bit of a safety net...but was trying to save up as much money as possible.

Things were really starting to fall apart at this job, and I could barely stand it. Then,on a Saturday night in January, I was babysitting, as I usually was on weekends those days. I was feeling fine, and then suddenly I was feeling awful. I was shivering, and could not get warm for the life of me. I was pale and my throat was throbbing. I was shaking. I eventually called the parents of the kid I was watching and said "Um yeah can you please come home?". I couldn't even see straight. The dad offered to drive me home and come back to get my car later, but I was stubborn and drove myself home. I burst into my parents house where my mom came to take my temperature. I had a 103 degree fever.

I barely slept that night, so sick that I could barely move or turn over. The next morning, I still had the 103 degree fever. I couldn't break it. I was supposed to work that night, so I called in. I was told, very, very rudely, might I add, that it didn't matter and I had to come in anyways. My dad's response "quit". So I did.

 I rolled over, turned on my laptop, and wrote my resignation letter. I hit send without even thinking twice about it. Had I not been so sick, I'm not sure I would have done it. But I'd had enough. And my dad giving me permission was the only fuel I needed.

Turned out, I had a really bad case of strep throat. I had it for 4 or 5 days, and barely left my bed. My sweet parents were bringing their sick 23 year old daughter medicine, soup, and ginger ale every few hours.

When I finally felt better, I had to return to that job to turn in my keys. The receptionist at our main building asked if I wanted to talk to my supervisor. "No thanks" I said as I handed over my keys. She then gave me my exit paperwork which stated that I was "non rehirable". I simply shook my head and left.

That day I missed work because of my fever was the only time I'd ever been absent, I was always on time, picked up shifts, and even worked 90% of the "Christmas Break" that the rest of the employees got.

In the end, it was the best decision. I learned that things only went downhill after I left, and had I stayed longer I may have had an anxiety attack. But I left, and immediately began regular babysitting jobs for three different families. Finding a real job became my full time job. I was getting paid good money for babysitting and spent any extra time job searching. Eventually I landed a job at a hospice as the volunteer coordinator, and that is where I still am, two years later as of yesterday.

I don't consider myself a quitter. But when you are, again and again, mistreated, it's time to move on and find something better. You must do what you have to do for YOU.

Have you ever quit a job?