I have not written anything here for a long time because I have been seriously depressed about my job.
When the time comes that you know you would cheerfully strangle your boss in front of witnesses and as your defense simply state (and firmly believe) that you were doing the world a favor, you can get that way. Thankfully he is several hundred miles away and I don’t feel like spending the money on gas, or there’s a high probability that he’d be a corpse right now.
But I had an epiphany about a week ago.
I don’t give a fuck.
That’s it; that’s the epiphany. Sure, whatever, keep piling shit on me and lying through your teeth about me to the new hires and other people when you know damn well that if I left, you’d be scrambling to replace me with about three other people that you wouldn’t be able to trust like me, who’s been with you for over two decades. I’ll just do what you tell me to do and I’ll tell you when you’re being a fuckup (which is most of the time) and not bother to pull my punches just because you cover my paychecks.
In the meantime I will be looking for another job. The plan to try to hang on for a few more years and retire at 62 is out the window. I don’t need the constant near-heart-attack-inducing rage that I feel toward the individual to whom I have given the best years of my working life. I used to consider him a friend.
Not anymore.
This is upsetting news. When I worked for 23 years at the same place, I didn’t leave because I hated my boss or my job. It had become an enormous part of my life and I was simply not excited to go to work anymore. It had a grinding sameness to it that I couldn’t take anymore. I left and he retired and sold the business a year later, for much the same reasons.
You’re not far from retirement. This is a huge step for you and not many jobs would pay you the salary you make or give you the kind of freedom and flexibility you’ve had for twenty years. Be very careful what you decide, my friend. Six or seven years isn’t that long to eke out, even if you are just going through the motions. As you say, this will wreck your retirement dreams. I pray you won’t do anything rash without long discussions with Sal and taking your time in making the move. It took me five years to decide to leave DCP (which turned out to be better than to suffer through the death throes of the company, but as you know, what I did turned out to be the single stupidest mistake I aver made). I’m here to talk to anytime. I know you’re frustrated, but take your time and consider wisely.
He’s a sexually-harassing, slave-driving psychopath. Worse, he imputes his own failings onto others. This has just been getting worse and worse for the past five years.
Don’t know if I can take it for another six years and change.
I don’t envy your situation. But guys our age are rarely welcome on the job market, except for Wal-Mart greeters.