So, what happened? I'll just make a list:
- Working 60 or 70 hours a week was still not enough to get everything done.
- I was on call 24x7 and could expect a call at any time (even on holidays) to deal with site issues.
- We were required to take our computers home every night and weekend and have it with us if we were more than 30 minutes away from home.
- Totally incomplete training and I was just supposed to figure things out and they would tell me when I got it wrong.
- Total misdirection on major projects multiple times. I wasted weeks working on the wrong things.
- I was being blamed for not getting a major project completed even though I planned 6 meetings to discuss it and they were all postponed or canceled by Big Boss and I talked to little boss about the deadline issues repeatedly and followed up with Big Boss many times. Yet somehow, I wasn't taking ownership over the failure and didn't push hard enough.
- I took 2 hours to respond to a phone call question when I was on vacation in San Francisco. This was a major problem for them even though the question was not that urgent.
- I took 15 minutes to respond to a IM from Big Boss because (as I explained to him) I was training our new employee. This was also a major problem. I was supposed to drop everything to work on whatever he deemed important because he was a director.
- Even with all the projects and work to be done, on top of that was having to constantly monitor the weather around North America and interpret how it might effect business, send out communications and talk with locations to prep them. Oh, and they just decided to add Europe to that, too.
- If there were weather issues to deal with, I was not able to get any other work done. Weather issues could take up an entire week, by the way.
- Little boss says I should just learn to deal with the egomaniacal (her term) nature of Big Boss and not let it bother me because he won't change.
- Two part-time college students were starting on Monday and even though Big Boss said he would be sending out a training plan, he hadn't and I knew that it would all fall to little boss and me to get them settled and do everything to train them.
So, last Sunday, I was psyching myself up to go back to work the next day, looking at the massive snow and ice storm hitting Atlanta that I was going to have to deal with, plus all the projects coming at me and the struggles just to get to this point. I suddenly realized that my heart was racing and my hands were shaking. I thought, this is ridiculous! Why am I doing this to myself? I don't like the job, I don't like the people, this isn't the life I want! So, I took the highly unprofessional and easy way out and sent them an email. 10:00 pm on Sunday night I told them that it wasn't working and I wasn't coming back. Give the job to someone who is willing to do the work. No notice, no nothing. I must admit I feel a little guilty about that. But in a way, I don't. It would have been hell to talk to them face-to-face about it. Big Boss manipulates conversations into what he wants and I knew that I wouldn't be able to speak my peace. And then to sit there for two weeks feeling guilty. . . ugh. Forget it. And now the real fun begins. . .
