How I quit my job - Part 1

I am of the opinion that your job should not define who you are. Just like age. Or sexuality.

Moreover, I've come to realize that being unhappy at one's job tends to influence one's life as a whole and if it truly is so and has been for a while, it's time to move on to other things.

My discontent at work started in early August, I'd just come back from vacation and the thought of coming back was unbearable. Sure, most people get that feeling, however it was a feeling that did not evaporate in a week or two, but stayed with me till the very end influencing how I function completely.

First of all, it needs to be said I commute at least 4 hours a day. Actually, if I calculate right, more like 5. I have (correction: had) a 8.30-5.00 job, I was leaving the house at 6.05am and coming back at 7.30pm or later (7.00pm if I was very lucky). I took the train in the morning to a small town where the company that I worked for is located, then took a half-hour walk to the factory or a slightly shorter bus trip always preceeded by waiting for 10 minutes in the wind. In the evening, I went back with somebody who had a car to the outskirts of my city only to use public transportation once again and be strayed in traffic for another hour to finally get home.

In other words, it was a fairytale.

The job itself was not fulfilling. My boss, GM of the company, was afraid to confront a member of the management team and this person ended up ruling the company, that made a lot of people miserable. Also, he was supposed to be my only boss, but I ended by being bossed around by a lot of people and my manager did nothing about it, they all could freely load me with assignments and when I pointed at that, he'd pretend to be willing to do something about it and he did not in the end. Honestly, I don't feel like reciting all reasons for leaving because it would just send me back to being frustrated, so I'm just going to say that the job made me miserable and that's not something I want to remember 30 years from now - boy, I was so overworked in my 20's, I put int so much overtime, I got calls from my boss at midnight, at 6.30am, I was really unhappy and did nothing about it. Nope, thank you.

And I do realize that most people in this sad world are unhappy with their jobs. I don't think it'll be an exaggeration if I say it's about 80-90%. Most people don't do their jobs for fun or for the selfish act of trying to be happy, most of them try to make a living. But I am positive that I can't be miserable for long and I know I can do better than being stressed all the time.

So between the beginning of August and the end of October there were maybe 3 or 4 days when I did not feeling like resigning. And those were not really job-related reasons, if I remember correctly I interacted with colleagues a lot on those days, so that means the boss was away on business trips.

There were several last straws the came with a series of VIP visits that I had to put together although I'm not the even the travel coordinator or event manager in the company. The visits were back to back, we had over 40 visitors altogether, all set up for different dates, meetings, agendas, etc. I had to juggle all of that while my boss kept only complicating the matters by re-inventing the wheel and micromanaging.

I'd written a template for my two weeks notice a while back, all I had to do was to put the date in it. And on October 21 I did just that.