working title

I Quit

I’ve never been fired. I’ve quite or been laid off from all of my jobs, which somehow makes me proud. At least I’ve never been fired. I can say that much.

Only once did I quit a job without another job lined up. At the time, I didn’t think I had another choice, and I stand by that decision. I was working for a family-owned business, and it was a very laid back atmosphere. The owner also worked construction with another company and one day he suffered a head injury which totally changed his personality. I’m sure he at least had a concussion, but he wouldn’t go to a doctor or hospital. (Around here, most men are the “macho” type that won’t admit any kind of weakness or injury) He started acting very different, especially with his friends. He started drinking a lot more and would wrestle his friends to the point of injuring himself or others. One day, he waved a loaded gun around in the store. I was standing right next to him while he did it.

I didn’t know at the time that he had a loaded gun in his hand. All I knew was that he was shouting about how tough he was again. I kept my head down and my mind on my work, which is how I didn’t notice. Later a coworker told me what had happened. If I had known, I would have walked right out of the job.

So, that was the first straw. Not long after that, there was a question with my hours and my paycheck, namely one of the owners had changed my hours on the calendar so my paycheck was lower than it should have been. I went to my supervisor and asked her about it. She told me she would talk to the owners about it. I got a call later that night from my coworker and supervisor. She told me she wasn’t going back to work the next day, and although she wouldn’t tell me to do the same, she thought it might be in my best interest to find another job as soon as I could.

From what I understand, my boss flew off the handle when confronted about changing the hours, and it ended with him making all kinds of accusations against me (saying I was a bad worker and that customers constantly complained about me), blaming my family (remember, the owners were family friends from before I was born), and he ended up threatening my coworker with burning her house down. I called my Mom right away. Since my boss brought my family into the whole mess, I thought she should be informed. It turns out he had already called her, ranting, and she had no idea what he was talking about, so I filled her in. Everyone around me told me it was up to me if I wanted to stay in the job until I found another one, but they wouldn’t blame me for quitting right away, which is what I did.

I called the store and left a message for them when I knew the store was closed and they wouldn’t be there. I didn’t have their home number and the number was unlisted, although I don’t think I would have called their home, anyway. I also sent them a long letter explaining my side, saying if I was a bad employee or if customers were complaining about me, why did no one tell me so that I could improve? If they had some sort of issue with my family, why did they hire me in the first place? (My coworker explained – one of the things my boss ranted about that day was how he hired me and treated me badly to get even with my parents, which makes no sense to me whatsoever.)

It was the strangest quitting experience I’ve ever had, and I’m still confused about it to this day. Now if I see one of my old bosses, they wave to me, so I’m not sure if they have forgotten and forgiven the situation or if they maybe don’t remember it. My advice – if you work for someone and they get a head injury, be very, very careful.

My coworker and supervisor moved on to another job, and so did I, after spending about two years unemployed, my longest stretch of unemployment. It took that long for me to get bored enough to look for a new job, and it took that long for my husband to run out of patience and ask, “Will you apply for a job?”