20 Mar
Last year about this time I had a job. As work goes it sucked. Literally. It sucked the life and joy right out of my soul. After eight years, I hated it. I was only holding on mentally for a few people who I thought were my friends.
Let's call this particular workplace Hell. I'm trying to be professional, after all, while I deal with my problems and insecurities. (I think I'm trying anyway....) At Hell, we had a Dictator who was a good boss. She listened and thought things through before making decisions. Being a small 'company' everyone wanted a voice in the decision making process. The Dictator gave them that voice. We all felt happy and fulfilled because of the good we were doing in the world.
Until the Manager was hired. Yelling, throwing things, back-biting, manipulation, slander, and on and on and on. Things went south incredibly quickly. I was publicly ridiculed on so many occasions that I lost count. - which is truly sad because I was a grunt and non-threatening to ANYONE's job. The Manager hated me. Except on days that she would hug me and offer back rubs while I was working. It was creepy psycho. I didn't know how to react. (I don't like to be hugged...)
Until the Dictator got a better offer.
The Dictator had been treated badly herself through a few recent mutinous rebellions and she needed a break. She deserved a break. So she left. She left Hell. She left the city. She left the state. She went somewhere else to be happy. I'm proud of her.
Things got worse and worse. Our new Dictator makes Hitler look like Mother Teresa. I was removed from my work and instructed to find my replacement via outsourcing. I found irrefutable proof that the one person I was staying for had lied to me. Big lies. Big fat hairy lies. So I left. I handed in my resignation and left contact information for my final week in case they had problems. No one called. Not even my so-called friend.
Apparently I wasn't as useful as I had thought.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised - we are calling the company Hell after all. And what magical lesson did I learn from this experience? Like my favorite Dictator, there is no reason to subject myself to Hell for other people.
16 Apr
So I walked away from Hell (my job of 1 year prior) and left contact information. I expected someone to call or email or text me. Especially my 'friend' who I'd been helping with her own job duties for the last 2 years. No one called.
About one month after I left, I got an email from the President of the Board of Directors of Hell. Let's call him ... Burns. Mr Burns said in the email that they needed me to tell them the password on my office phone and computer because no one could access anything. Obviously it was rude of me to place passwords on everything before walking out the door with no notice and no way for the to access me.
BIG FAT LIES!
I've never had a password on my phone. If there was suddenly a password after I left, it wasn't me that put it there. I had no idea what the computer password was because the new Dictator locked me out of it. She claimed I was incompetent. Any passwords I put on things, I left with the Business Manager whom I thought was my friend.
Betrayal ripped through me. I'd been ignoring other office staff sending Facebook messages to me about how my 'friend' was badmouthing me. I dismissed all the claims that she and several others were blaming office problems on me. I honestly thought they were my friends. I'd been protecting them for years. I was buying them lunch and helping their kids with homework. I thought....
Oh boy was I wrong.
No one believed that I hadn't sabotaged Hell on my way out. No one offered sympathy. No one said anything at all. I even tried contacting my 'friend' about things - the friend who claimed she handed in her resignation the same day I did. It turned out my 'friend' was still working at Hell. Apparently I was right all along ... they were trying to drive me out.
The hilarious part is that I was contacted in November from old coworkers in Hell. They needed help with several problems they'd walked into. I was hugely offended. Why? I knew that Hell worked that way. Only demand assistance when they need something. I'm ashamed to say that I cried for an hour after that phone call. The worst part of it? The person who called was the only one still in Hell that I would have answered the phone for. They even used that against me.