Work: My Eternal Purgatory

This one time, I walked out on a job. I felt like raising my fist in the air like the rebel at the very end of The Breakfast Club while "Don't You, Forget About Me" played. It's five years later. I work at eBay now. I still don't make as much as I did at that previous job, but honestly, I won't complain. Leaving that previous job was probably the best decision I ever made.

Per my previous post, I was REALLY sick at this point in my life. I don't know what officially happened to me but the final conclusion was a strong dose of antibiotics that finally fixed me. I was on FMLA at my old job and lots of people would question as to whether or not I was making it up. Basically that led to me standing up and yelling, "Guys I'll be right back! I have to take a shit!" To which my old boss finally took me aside and quietly told me that I didn't need to explain to everyone what I was doing when I stood up. I told him that everyone thought I was feigning an illness that was ruining my life, so I figured they may as well know if they were so curious. By the way, it's illegal to speculate as to why people are on FMLA, the gossip girls did just that all of the time. We even had a meeting with HR explaining this to them numerous times. They just couldn't stop though.

Also, the supervisor that wouldn't piss on me to put it out if I caught on fire? He got shitcanned from Harland awhile after I started at eBay. Why? He was playing World of Warcraft instead of doing his job. Suck it Martin! You looked like Peter from Family Guy! Your ex-girlfriend who skinned your Alf doll in High School and stuffed him in his locker knew what she was doing!

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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

So sometimes the question arises in everyone's life: Did I do something wrong in a past life? Was I a serial killer, rapist, bank robber or Dr. Laura?

I have often questioned that in the course of my years working at my job in sunny Harland. The place started off as a haven for call center holocaust survivors.

Then about two years into it we got a new director. I swear he thought we were his boot camp recruits. All respect for employees went down the toilet and just didn't quite flush.

We were treated as money making tools, our department never got acknowledged and you just got smoke blown up your ass all of the time.

So four years into it, yesterday I think I finally just snapped.

Victoria had recently just quit, my friend Aubrey had left to have her baby, I had just gotten back from vacation, and I was left with nobody to back me up in my department.

I have often dreamed of walking out on break to have a cigarette, only to get in my car and never come back. I've never been quite brazen enough to do that and I would trudge back into work with a small shudder.

Yesterday I got into work a bit late. The day had already gone to shit. Our department is generally very slow 20-30 calls a day. But somehow all the calls from other departments started routing into mine. They told us to just deal with it and to take the phone calls even though we had either not taken these calls in over a year or had not been trained in the ones coming through. All day we were 30 in cue with a 30 minute hold time, only to get a pissed off customer who would get even more pissed off when they found out we had absolutely no prowess in taking their calls.

At 4:30, everyone but me is left in my department. I am there from 4:30-6 alone.

My competent boss, note sarcasm here, didn't bother checking in to see if I was ok before he left at 3:30. One of the girls on my team called downstairs to see what we were going to do once they all left and I would be alone to contend with this mess.

They said that I should just "deal with it." Deal with it. They couldn't have suggested me routing the calls to the correct department, or sent someone up to help me out. I just had to deal with it.

So I decided maybe they should just deal with it. I packed up my shit, waited until my 4:30 co-workers left, and took off, with nobody there to take the calls.

In a moment of empowerment, I walked out of a job that paid me $12.72 an hour because finally bending over for that wasn't just much fun anymore.

My boss was PISSED today. He was so mad at me because he thought it was all about him. He spoke of never helping me out or actually I believe the correct term he used that if I was on fire he wouldn't piss on me to put it out.

Because to him, it wasn't about me. It wasn't about respect and treating your employees like they were human beings and having an ounce of sympathy for situations we are in or the daily stress we go through to get our jobs done so that we can make their damn company some more money.

I am now faced with the reality that I do not have a real job, I have a very part time night job. I have a car payment, cell phone bill, insurance and groceries to buy. I am faced with the fear of the unknown and the definite possibility of a pay cut in my next job whatever it may be.

But I don't regret a minute of it!