Anxiety

Sayonara witch with a b...

Today may go down as one of the worst but most satisfying days in my short life. On Friday, I decided that I would give my two weeks notice on Monday (today). Since my boss, we'll call her "One Whose Parents Apparently Never Hugged Her" or OWPANHH for short, was out of the office on Friday, I emailed her to ask to schedule some time with her on Monday to discuss my future with AAA.

I never got a response, but I was determined to do things the right way. I went into work this morning with a very polite, generic letter of resignation and all of my notes that explained everything I do, a goodwill gesture to help her in training my replacement. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt... these things happen in the business world all the time, so it's highly unlikely that she would take it out on my personally. What I really excpected was that she would be almost unbearably passive aggressive, because as I said, apparently her parents never hugged her, but that I could handle.

I got into the office at 7:30 and she was already there. She usually doen't show up until 8:30 or shortly thereafter. I said "Good morning!" and she mumbled something in response, never making eye contact. I sat down, turned on my computer and started updating my daily spreadsheets. When I checked my emails, I found that she had written me seven, none of which addressed my request for a meeting, but all of which were making requests for work I had that wasn't supposed to be due for a week or two. All of the requests ended with, "You need to have this to me before you go to lunch."

Then the loud phone calls started coming. The first couple were apparently to prospective new employees. "I have a position open immediately. It's entry-level, so I don't really know if you would lower yourself to taking that, but I need someone if you're interested." At this point, it became clear to me that she was trying to set me up. Completely overloading me so that she could say I didn't get work done on time. A noon deadline so that she could get rid of me AFTER I had completed all the busy work she didn't want to do. I was irate.

After this there was silence, she walked in and out of her office a few times (through mine) without ever saying a word to me or making eye contact. Then she made the phone call that was the final straw. It was a personal call, asking someone about their kids and their move, then she started in with "I'm sure you've heard about my situation, what she did to me on Friday. Yeah, she actually thought she could get away with it... Right HAHAHA... Yeah, I'm trying to get her replaced right now.... Yeah, really, HAHAHAHA."

**Side note: For those who don't know, our offices are attached so she was well aware that I could hear every word.

At this point I was done being her punching bag. I wasn't going to give her the chance to put any more notes in my file, or even fire me if that's what she had decided to do. I crafted a nicely-worded letter to HR explaining that I had really wanted to give proper notice but I feared that my boss would make the next two weeks extremely unpleasant and for my own health and happiness, I had to resign immediately. I printed it, attached it to my nice two-week-notice letter, stood up, grabbed my stuff and walked out silently. I dropped off my letters, expense reports, badge and cell phone at the front desk for HR on my way out.

I guess I'll never know what happened there after that. Although, considering that she doesn't know how to update the website, or where the RSVPs are for the many events we're having or where my research is for the six or so releases that were supposed to go out this week, she may regret a tiny bit that she couldn't have just treated me like a human being.

But for the first time in about three months, I'm proud of myself. I'm proud that I went in to face her and try to do the right thing, and I'm proud that I had the guts to stand up and walk out when it became obvious that she wasn't going to allow me to do what was right.

Whether this means I get a temp job or I work at Starbucks, this is one decision I don't think I'll ever regret.

posted by Rachel at 9:57 AM