When I got back up to my office, after just having finished lunch and having that warm, full-belly feeling all over, I have to admit I was a little bit surprised to see three burly security guards by my door, waiting for me to return.
A bit surprised, but not completely – after all, I had just fired off a scathing email to my boss – and her boss – telling them quite unpretentiously how I really felt. “We can follow a ways behind,” one of the senior guards said, “we don’t want it to be embarrassing.”
Honestly, if they had gathered all my co-workers into a meeting room, and my boss stood at the head of a table yelling, “You’re fired!” in a Trump-esque rage, it wouldn’t have embarrassed me. I smiled from ear to ear as I walked down the hallway to turn in my badge and keys, titillated at the absurdity of the situation.
It turned out I wasn’t being fired on my last day of work, just being asked to leave early. Which is almost as ridiculous, since the guards arrived at my office at about 12:15 and I was already scheduled to turn in my things at 1:00. I was asked to leave 45min before I was scheduled to, just because supervisors these days take everything personally. And therein lies part of the bigger problem, and why I had to leave this employer in the dust.
Respecting Yourself Enough to Fire Your Employer
Things are not always peachy-keen in the workforce. There has been a shift in the way we – as human beings – treat each other and expect to be treated by each other. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard people, often people who are managers and higher, say something like, “they should be happy just to have a job”, and I think many of them really believe it’s true!
It’s a sad state of affairs, really. It’s not as black and white as they’d have you believe. There comes a point, when you’re run so ragged and have to deal with so many stressors – not just the stress that’s intrinsic to the job, but also managers who dwell far outside the realm of reality and get angry when you try to bring them back to it, co-workers that don’t care to understand, schedules that make everything impossible, and corporate policies that are certainly unethical and border on illegal – that it’s just not worth it any more.
I remember writing a letter to the lady in charge of our “well workplace” designation, telling her that it felt like a slap in the face that our company was even nominated for it. I explained that since starting there, I’d done nothing but put on weight, wasn’t able to exercise any more, lost all my hobbies and most of my friends, hurt my back, and developed chest pain my doctor could never diagnose (which I still have to this day), and I was only 28 at the time!
I stopped short of mentioning how on my drive to work, I’d taken to blissfully day-dreaming about crashing my car into a bridge embankment (hoping for nothing serious, just a broken bone or two) simply to get a little time away from work, because I didn’t want to sound crazy. And it still sounds crazy to me even now, but seriously, that’s where this job had taken me, and the sad thing is I know I’m not the only one that feels that way. But I suppose I should’ve just been happy that I had a job, right? That was 2.5 years ago – how I almost made it to six years at this place is beyond me.
But eventually, there’s a turning point in your mindset. You begin to realize that you’re too good for this place. And in your mind, you realize what has to be done – you have to fire your boss.
You have to fire your employer.
It’s a concept that I think eludes a lot of people. We know employers can let you go, but we never seem to think it’s possible from the other way around. We think that because we feel like we need them more than they need us – but with lots hard work, sacrifice, and discipline, you can turn the tables.
It still boggles my mind that after almost six years on this job, no one tried to keep me there when I put in my two weeks notice. It was just a, “I thought this would be coming. It’s been a pleasure working with you…” sort of thing. Which I’m not saying is horrible or anything – it could’ve been worse. But from a pure business standpoint, they should try to retain people a little more than that.
By repairing medical equipment in-house instead of using contracts with the manufacturers, I personally save my company well over $300k each year nowadays, compared to about $60k during my first year. Experience makes a difference in my field. Add to that the $50k spent on training for me, plus the $20k in travel costs while training, and paying me a wage while there, and they’ve easily spent $100k.
When they hire someone new, they’re easily losing over $400k through training expenses and lost savings during the first two years. And these are the business decisions of the people in charge?? No way, I’m done with that. I guess you could say that “due to a pattern of not achieving their performance metrics”, I had to let them go.
Now is the Time to Move
You can do a lot of different things when you decide it’s time to quit your day job. You can start your own business, or volunteer at any number of great organizations in your town. You can also go and look for another job right away, or just decide to take it easy and sit on the couch for a while.
For Becki and I, it’s time to travel. We’ve scrimped and saved, we’ve opened up tons of credit cards and done all sorts of crazy things to get more frequent flier miles, and now the time has come to leave it all behind for a few months and enjoy ourselves.
I’d recommend you do the same. Traveling is an investment in yourself – it’s an education – and that’s always the best investment you can make. Plus, haven’t you always wanted to see Machu Picchu? Yeah, I thought you did ;)
If you’re thinking about how much you hate your job, or that you just can’t stand being stuck in your cubicle any longer, or even if you like your job but are just looking for a change, go for it. Put a plan in place: start cutting back on your expenses, maximize the money you have coming in, and get ready for an adventure.
And remember, it’s not “quitting” when you leave your job with a plan in place and a head full of dreams. It’s kind of the opposite, actually – it’s winning.
Ethan says
Good for you buddy. You can only suppress rationality for so long. Truly a win. Happy for the both of you.
Andy says
Thanks so much Ethan. It still hasn’t fully sunken in yet – just feels like a nice long vacation so far :)
Mike R says
Inspirational story Andy. I know you were very unhappy with your job for sometime. I am glad that you took some action :) I too have had thoughts in the past of leaving it all behind. Are there any blogs or books that inspire you to make your decisions?
Andy says
Hi Mike, good to hear from you! It has indeed been a while in coming, but I suppose that’s the silver lining to a job that pushes you so far… it might just push you to do something about it ;)
Oh yeah, tons of books and blogs. Some of the best are The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, http://www.smartpassiveincome by Pat Flynn, http://www.nomadicmatt.com by Matt Kepnes – I’ll email you a list with a few more as well :)
Britany says
Love this! And I can’t wait to follow your adventures in travel and “winning” :)
Andy says
Lol, well I hope we are able to deliver! :D
Niraj says
I fully agree with you, that we should fire the employer rather than other way around. I did it 2 years ago. It feel great.