The decision came for me when I was given a lecture about the meaning of “professionalism” that sounded to my 23yo ears like “you will do what you’re told, when you’re told, for as long as you’re told to do it.” I still am suspicious of people who talk “professionalism” unless I know exactly what they mean ahead of time.
Wow. That is one of the most fucked up things I’ve ever heard. Made me laugh imagining it though. 
I was recruited about 18 months before I felt ready to leave my job and I still do pre diem work, so I have 2 jobs. I felt I owed my hospital a little more time in exchange for all the specialized training they’ve given me, but I was feeling I could use another challenge and additional training promised me was put on the back burner by my new supervisor, so when I was recruited the last time, I thought it was time to take the plunge.
I wrote out a nice long rant about my boss, but decided it wasn’t really appropriate. Suffice to say that once I realized we would have to fight for routine performance evaluations and even simple positive feedback every so often, and that the company was growing faster than operations could handle (and growing in a direction I do not wish to go), that was when I decided I needed to find another job.
Depressingly, once I told my boss I planned to leave before the summer’s up, he began making the changes I felt were necessary to keep the company healthy so that it would at least survive me leaving. I could have gutted the company by giving my two weeks’ notice without any further warning, and yet I don’t believe I ever once heard a word of approval except when I asked.
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Since I started working there, a Super-Fundie has come in; I am the ONLY one at our level who was working there at the time who hasn’t quit, and that was about 6 months ago. I’m convinced that he’s the direct cause of most of the turnover. It’s not like we’re all “Eww, Christian! Time to switch jobs!” Each person has been determined to give him a fair shake despite what they’ve heard about him, and then changes their attitude when he tells them they’re going to Hell or God’s gonna cut them down or their interracial relationship is going to create a “mud race”, or tells them (female coworkers!) that he refuses to do dishes because they’re “women’s work”. I just can’t stand working with him, or working for a company that allows that shit to go on. I mean, the entire staff has been complaining to the mgmt. about his bullshit the entire time, and they pretend to care, and then nothing happens.
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I’ve been a bit too honest about my past indiscretions. I sensed that my boss and I had a rapport, since he spilled the beans on his own past life as a tweaker and a drug dealer, so I told him the stories of my wilder days. Fast forward to when I have a cardiac event (a step or two below a heart attack, basically) at work and the paramedics have to come save my life; while I was in the hospital people asked him what happened since he was my immediate supervisor, and he told everyone that I had been drinking cough syrup by the bottle and that was probably what caused it.
a) I have never drank cough syrup by the bottle, particularly not habitually, although that’s mostly a technical distinction. (I used to do the active chemical, by itself, regularly.)
b) I hadn’t done that in months.
c) Have some fucking respect for your employees–don’t pull shit out of thin air and then start rumors about them. Bottom line.
The whole thing just blew me away. When I came back to work after almost dying right there on the premises, I was the butt of everyone’s jokes. All because of a complete fabrication that my direct supervisor had pulled out of his ass to boost his gossip cred or some bullshit. I keep a level head at work, but I exploded in fiery rage at the Super-Fundie when he made too god damned many “Robo-Barista” jokes and I haven’t heard anything about it since.
At this point, it’s definitely time to leave.
The only reason I haven’t told my boss and the Super-Fundie off and thrown my apron in the ice cream is because my credit score is way too bad for me to get another job right now.
When I couldn’t get dressed for work without help from my mom or husband, when I couldn’t get through the day without a backrub or three from a coworker because I was in so much pain, when I needed so much help from coworkers that they might as well have done my job for me, when I started sleeping every evening on the ride home because I was so wiped out. I’ve been retired and collecting disablity for over four years now. I still have recurring nightmares that I’m back at work, though, and they scare the crud out of me.
I will be leaving my current job when my fantasties of killing my colleagues are in danger of becoming reality. That’ll be next week then…actually, I’ve not handed in my notice yet but recent events have made it obvious that I can’t stay here.
I left my first teaching job out of college after a semester when I realized through a series of events that the students were pulling the strings, and administration couldn’t be bothered to pull rank to ensure a safe environment for their teachers.
So I called the Math Department chair at the school where I did my student teaching and she was thrilled that I could take the opening that she had called me about a few months earlier (all other candidates were not up to their standards). The stars aligned and I’m staying where I am for as long as I’m in teaching.
In general, when the thought of being unemployed and living at Mom’s (this is a big detail, since even if I don’t move in with her she’s likely to “come visit”…) is less bad than the thought of going to my current job.
Mind you, that doesn’t mean I just leave - the thought of being in a new job should be better than that of being unemployed 