I Quit My Job

13 years ago, at the ripe age of 22, I began what I thought would be a lifelong career at a high-profile company that has been in business for over 170 years. It was a job that growing up, I had heard you were set for life if you were able to get your foot in the door. In fact, during my final interview for the hiring process, the general manager of the plant told me: "We want everyone who we employ here, to retire here." I thought I had hit the career lottery and told everyone I knew that I had landed the job. If you were to tell me back then that I eventually would leave on my own, I would have said you were cracked in the head. Let me put you at ease if you're reading this and thinking that I just quit with no plan or anything. I have another job lined up at another company that I start at very soon. However, this blog really is to just funnel my thoughts and feelings about how big of a shift my life is about to go through. Perhaps you can relate or maybe I can impart some life advice for anyone out there who feels they are "stuck" like I was.

A few years ago, many things shifted at my job that led to extreme changes for myself and my coworkers. Essentially our corporate division made the decision that cuts had to be made across the board. (Which I believe had everything to do with appeasing the shareholders but that's strictly my opinion and honestly a story for another day) To make a long story short, overtime became nonexistent, myself and others were bounced to different shifts and layoffs became a weekly list that only seemed to grow larger and larger. Now I know there are people out there who have had it much worse off than I did and I promise I'm not ignorant enough to think I'm more special than others. I just want to paint the picture that in a short period of time, I went from being content with what I thought was a safe and forever job to wondering if my name would be added to the layoff list when I checked the weekly schedule. This was something that really affected me considering what I told you earlier in this blog about believing I would retire from this facility. Over the last couple of years, I would say that my mental, physical and even emotional health started to erode faster than I thought possible. I had spent my first 8 years of employment on the midnight shift to finally earn a spot on days. That came to a screeching halt and I found myself being forced to whatever shift my management team deemed necessary for me to be shoved to. (I had a few weeks stretch where I went from days to midnights to days and then afternoons. Which for anyone out there that bounces around different shifts, it's not something your body can adjust to at a moment's notice and it's extremely unhealthy long-term) As much as moving shift to shift hurt, one of the biggest problems was the sudden disappearance of overtime availability. Our facility was known to be a 24/7 365 day a year operation. More than once, I was forced to miss holidays, birthdays or other huge life events for family and friends because I was forced to work on weekends or days that most of the population got off. This alone put a huge strain on not only myself but also to the people closest to me. (Shoutout to Mrs. Prowler who, honestly, is the biggest saint in the world for surviving not only midnight me at the beginning of our relationship but especially the last few years where things really became intolerable) As much as being forced to work overtime sucked, the paycheck always made it easier to accept things. I knew I never had to worry about paying our bills or mortgage or anything really because I had the means to work extra to provide for myself and my family. Well like I said before, with a snap of someone's fingers, overtime vanished overnight. Now I don't mean for this to sound like I'm bragging but I consider myself a bit of a financial savant where I pride myself on saving, investing and generally being very conscious of my money and money decisions. However, that first year of no overtime resulted in a 20,000 dollar pay cut for yours truly. I don't think I really need to detail how challenging that made things when overtime was considered an expectation, to all of a sudden, just vanish like that. I know that bouncing around different shifts and suddenly losing overtime might sound like the worst of the worst to some of you, but what really became the most difficult part of my job was the treatment of us employees. Management deliberately began treating us workers like scum and would go out of their way to attempt to administer bogus discipline. At first, we couldn't understand the dramatic shift in culture and why we were being treated like prisoners instead of employees. Then came the offer of transfers and buyouts. We discovered the company had set the precedence of trying to force us out of our jobs because they needed to "correct the headcount of our facility" which to put simply: they wanted us to quit or get fired because they believed we were overstaffed according to corporates guidelines. I watched as so many good and great employees left the company simply because they saw the writing on the wall: we were shackling ourselves to a sinking ship. The worst part was no matter how well our facility ran or how hard us remaining employees worked, nothing was ever good enough. The motto between my coworkers and I became: more with less. That was the expectation and one manager was even caught saying "If you don't like it, then just leave."

I apologize for the abundance of negativity that has proceeded this point of my writing so far. For anyone who has been reading my blogs from the beginning, you know I love to inject as much humor and light heartedness as possible to make these readings fun for both you and I. However, to get the brightest rainbow, you have to weather the darkest of storms. (I have no idea if that's true. Just sounded good in my head as I was writing it down!) I am happy to report that as of February 28th, 2025, I took that managers advice and I finally left that toxic place. Through the help of my family and friends, I made a plan to exit at least by June of this year but with an updated resume and the help of some great references, the plan came to fruition much sooner. While I'm sad to leave behind some amazing coworkers and memories, I know that my next job will have reliable hours, people and the chance to improve my own circumstances based off the value of my work. (Which I absolutely did not have the chance to do in my previous job)

At the end of the day, I want to just sum up a few things I've learned through this process of both life and career. While I don't regret my time spent at my old job because it was able to afford me a house, vehicle and things like my wedding and vacations, I regret that I didn't push myself earlier to take a chance on myself and my abilities to find something that not only could I be content with, but something I could enjoy and be happy performing as well. For many of you that know me, I am one of the biggest Jim Carrey fans around and years ago, Jim was asked to give a commencement speech. In his speech, something really resonated with me that didn't hit home until I left my previous job. He said: "I learned many great lessons from my father - not the least of which is that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love." I thought my old job would never be something that would be in jeopardy of failing but I was also never truly happy performing that job. While my new job might not be complete perfection, I plan to push myself to be grateful for a new and exciting opportunity each and every day that I arrive there. I hope if you've made it this far with me, you come to the same realization that I did. We do not have to be stuck in a position of misery. We can always remove ourselves from toxic people, places and situations. We have one life to live and it's honestly too short for second guessing ourselves or believing we don't deserve the best for each and every one of us. So honestly, don't be like me! Don't pigeonhole yourself into a corner for 13 years with one job that never made you happy! Fight for what brings you joy and if you can't achieve that, at least don't settle for mistreatment like I did over the last few years. Believe in yourself like I finally did and the possibilities will forever be endless.

P.S. Special shoutout to my friends Marky and Kevin who made achieving my new job a real possibility. I appreciate you guys so much for what you did for me throughout that process. Also special thanks to my amazing parents who I had a lot of difficult conversations with when trying to figure out what was best for me and my path forward when I felt defeated over and over again. Without their love and support, I would be nowhere near where I am today. Of course, I could never forget my amazing and beautiful wife Mrs. Prowler. She happily tells me daily that I was always too good for my old job and I needed to believe in myself like she believed in me. I love her more than anything and will never stop thanking her for pushing me to be the best possible version of myself, day in and day out. Thank you all!