I quit in (W)hole

It wasn’t exactly my plan, but I quit my job. I went into my supervisor’s office planning to tell her I have an interview for a cool new opportunity at a big fancy university close to my house, and that if I didn’t get the position, I was going to keep applying for others. She then forced me to choose a last day, which I wasn’t planning to do. I panicked hard for a minute when she said it, because I don’t want a gap between paychecks if at all possible, and if I give notice I can’t collect unemployment in the event that I don’t get this job. But, she insisted it would be a “cleaner break” for everyone, and might even motivate me to find something faster… as though my mortgage doesn’t motivate me, or my 5 kids who eat non-stop, or my dog with arthritis who needs medication. I didn’t find that to be a very helpful (or appropriate) comment. She acted very supportive and told me she was really happy for me, said she’d give me the opportunity to inform my students and the other staff on my own time.

The following Monday was the observation day for New Years, so I didn’t go to work.. but apparently everyone else did.. and said supervisor went ahead and told everyone that I quit. After saying she wouldn’t. This is why I’m leaving, folks. She also a) posted my job on Indeed after saying she wouldn’t be hiring anyone to replace me and b) divided my students up between the other two gals in my department so that I have absolutely nothing to do. The other two gals seem a little pissy, one moreso than the other. I just cant keep doing this shit with these people. I’ve been treated like human garbage since I gave notice. People stop talking when I walk into a room, I was told not to come to a particular meeting where we discuss the progress of our students, and was told none of mine were on the docket for that day. Lies. They discussed my students without me and made decisions about them with no input from me.

I know that I quit, so I’ve forfeited the right to care, but they immediately put all kinds of changes in place that don’t make any sense and don’t support our mission as a company. It’s really upsetting because I feel like I’m just standing by and watching it sink further and further into quicksand. The whole ship is going down and I’m just standing here watching it. They’ve asked me to do all the student transports since I “don’t have anything else to do.” This means basically driving back and forth to campus all day until my last day.

I had my interview at the big fancy university last Tuesday, and it went amazingly well. I met the 2 other people who are in that position, as well as some other employees from the hiring committee. They were very encouraging and kept saying things like “the position you’ll be stepping into…” and at the very end they told me that they would absolutely be contacting me ASAP for a 2nd interview with the department director and asked if I could fill out my digital references right away. I got the email invite for the reference checks the next day, and had at least 3 people complete and submit them before the end of the work day. They scheduled me the 2nd interview that same evening, and it was changed to a one on one with the director of the department, via zoom. It was previously supposed to include the other 2 case managers for the department, but I had already met them in the Round 1 interview and they both seemed to really like me. I’m hoping this means he’s about to offer me this position today!

I’ve only applied to one other “back up” job, as an associate registrar for a community college. I have felt so good about this case manager position at the big Uni that I haven’t felt the need to apply for a lot of other things, but hopefully that doesn’t end up biting me in the butt later. My dad thinks I’m insane. He couldn’t believe I was quitting my job without something new lined up. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Work stuff aside, life goes on. We started having Family Meetings with the kids because their behavior has been off the hook lately, wild and insane and obnoxious. We created family rules at the first meeting, and they did a little better about behavior the next week, but then at the 2nd Family Meeting we established consequences that went along with each rule. Now we’re in the “Training Phase” and we are handing out consequences like lollipops for every minor infraction to show them that we’re serious about this and that we’re going to follow through. I’ve already seen some huge improvements. Two of the rules are to pick up after yourself and to turn off lights when you leave a room, and the consequences for not doing them is to do an extra chore. They all have regrets about choosing that consequence, but the house looks great! haha! We’ve only had 2 meltdown associated with having to do extra chores, one from Addisyn (8) because she had to do like 2-3 chores in a row and got mad about it, and one from Ariel (almost 11) because she tried to lie to get out of her consequence and we reviewed our security cam footage and busted her in the lie, which got her an additional chore. She was stomping around, huffing and puffing. Fairly comical. When Addisyn got mad, she went to her room and screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs for a good half hour. We ignored it. hahahahaaa kids are fun.