NoMeansNo

Well. Sorta.

Yesterday was my final day at the same company I've worked for for the past 9 years....I quit so that we can move to Richmond,VA next weekend.

It's def the end of some kind of era. The longest stretch I've ever worked for one company. My first real corporate job. A job that began as a 10 day data entry assignment at the end of Sept 2001 when *no one* was hiring in Portland. <A city that I moved to with no job lined up (much like Richmond will be).> One that I turned into a permanent gig that afforded me the 3+ weeks to go to London/Paris, trips up & down the West coast (Canadians were involved.) as well as a paid move back to the East coast when I wanted it (& a promotion in the process). There were some def downsides: the Bullying of 2008. But the upside : karma has kicked some major fuckin' ass on that front. And I somehow have an awesome resume as a result.

Unlike 90% of the people that work there: I got more from The Man than it ever got from me. And I'm leaving with 4 weeks paid vacation and I did one helluva Exit Interview where I named names>I went for blood but I also gave big huge warm fuzzy ups to those that deserved it in order to make their path easier while they're stuck there.

It's weird. I'm not 100% sure when it'll really kick in that I'm not on vacation. I'm fucking DONE. Probably not until we've moved & unpacked in Richmond and raised multiple toasts with an assload of old friends that I can't wait to see.

Has anyone else made such a dramatic change recently? Share! Or have any of you left such a longstanding gig completely on your own terms/of your own choice? What happened as a result?

Welcome back we missed you. Have some complimentary Deep Turtle and Ventures, they are the house special this week. (tip of the keyboard to the listening club)

You are living the dream! That is the coolest thing. I wish I could do that. Everyday I am where I am. I wish I was a human being enough to grab what I got and say “I AINT TAKIN' YOUR SHIT NO MORE! Oh and by the way assemble the Legion OF Doom together I am about to drop more names and tales than the
Wu Tang on a shout out track!”

I envy you in a way. I…I…wish I was you.
I would be so pretty oh so pretty…enough of my fantasies.

Answer is yes. Yes I have, I ended up living my dream job. I told the boss to stuff it. Stoned over the phone looking out over the parking lot of my 4th floor studio apartment in a 15 floor building. I felt such a weight lifted, as they say. I felt anonymous. In a good way, I could blend in and be that face in the crowd that you wouldn’t see coming. A shark with a bite, a good bite. I lived part of my plan for success for a while. I was on the road making money hand over fist. I remember in the month of December one year I made a fat chunk. Summers were slow for me so you sock it away and dip in only when you need it. Still with the world on a string to pull a long at my pace.
I had a serious of unfortunate events….well in retrospect they did save my life however it put a hault to the money. That was my own fault for appropriating with every hot thing that came my way when I was young. My ex-wife left my son with me shortly after his fourth birthday to live with me full time. That put an end to my run. Can’t really take children on the road in that line of work. What was I suppose to do? Set him up at the hotel bar. “Here’s a Jack n Coke in a tippy-cup, daddy will be back in an hour.”

Anyway this isn’t about me, however I live humbly but happy these days. I got my NMN and my movies and my family. I am a rich man.

So the answer is Yes it can work out. You are on a hot streak right now. You go to Richmond and let them know lickspittle don’t take no shit girl! However, don’t slow down. The only break you need is when you bust you hump getting that gig you love or at least comfortable with. You can do it and other catch phrases that motivate. The world, as they say, is yours!

Inspiring stuff Lickspittle, i'm in a similar position, just about to leave my job of 5 years working for a big company. Never spent more than 6 months anywhere, this has worked wonders for future employment, can finally get a job i believe in on the strength of putting myself through 5 years of drudgery.

Hope it all works for you.

Hi SF..

Congrats on you're decision! I hope happiness awaits you in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I remember how painful your job was after leaving Portland, and I'm sure it must be a giant weight off your shoulders to be flying the middle finger at your old employers on your way out of town.

Move to Vermont. I'll pay you to be my handler.

But who could handle the handler?! I smell sitcom...or is that Jeff? Or me, after a long day of packing.



Thanks so much Hoppy! Yeah, that first year on the job was hell. And then everyone woke up, apologized to me, and severed ties with the psycho bitch who started it all. And HR started building a file on the bitch. My exit interview could be the final nail.
I *did* learn a lot from the whole experience and made a couple of good coworker friends in the process.

But the real reason we're moving to Richmond is I need to live in a city , more importantly: a place with public transportation. If the company had an office there: I might've stayed with them just because I hate looking for a job. But ultimately : it's time for a fresh start all around!



Hey there BFF~We're closing the mileage gap! You'll finally get to meet Paul & the kitties & see some of my old stomping grounds...



Congrats to you Nick! That's awesome. I'm raising a toast right now~~do keep us all updated, eh? In my perfect world: I'd finagle a job for the state gov't (I've got a couple of old Richmond friends who are state employed) or local gov't somehow relating to public transportation since I'm so keen on it. Not that I've got urban planning degree/skills but at least in a general office/AP/asset managment etc sort of way....

1) Thanks defree, and for all the off-forum stuff as well. True champ. Not chump. Not chomp.CHAMP.

2) Ah, I've dl'd but not unzipped the Ventures so far...still pushing the limits on 'puter storage...I really DO need a 1 terabyte stackable to go w/my miniMac...sure. I can do that after quitting my job, right? Uh. Maybe I'll get some birthday $$ this week...OH...I saw the Ventures @ the old 930 & the whole HC scene turned out complete w/stage dives. Such fun! So I'm super excited to hear their treatment of country songs~I've tried Deep Turtle before & I just wasn't quite in that frame...but I'll try again~oh yeah, PM me on how to share stuff as easy as possible? I'm listening to John Oswald/Plunderphonics as I type this....

3) Sometimes I wish I was a pretty girl so I could wreck myself in the shower

4) I love feeling anonymous and untethered when I'm a travellin'...but here in SC it's been a new kind of anonymity: the stifling kind of having no peers in the 'hood, 'round the corner, downtown:anywhere in this town. No one (except for Mr Lickspittle) who shares my excitement about...anything! Very odd. Except for a few trips to visit Robbie/Amy & up to DC: I've had no real conversations with anyone close to gabba gabba hey-ness. Except via Facebook. And I know there's haters: BUT: FB & my friends worldwide on it have fucking saved me here!

5) But back to being invisible, anonymous: it'll be weird to actually be concerned about how I look when I go out in the world again. I might, and WILL, run into people I know. I will lose the weight I've gained living in a car because I'll once again be a pedestrian with a purpose...when the weather mellows: I will return to walking for 6 hours with my camera. Just exploring. I will return to wearing my cute favorite vintage dresses & old man sweaters. I will see friends of mine playing music in the bowling alley. There will be backyard hootenanny's. I will see Built to Spill in October. And I'll be challenged by a couple of really great photographers in Richmond. It's still so unreal to me, in this limbo state, but...I have a feeling I'll be waking up early, grabbing a camera or two and will just head out for hours....getting grounded with the pavement and the buildings and the sky & then with the old friends & new....

6) Which is to say: I plan on taking a month before I even start looking for a temp job. I want to unpack. I want to settle. I want to rock. I want to learn the bus system. I want to reconnect with myself again: all that's been dormant for the past 2 years while I was

7) biding my time, but not wasting my time!

(ps: sorry this was all so nonfunny but fuck it. My humor is best experienced verbally & with my wild gesturing & that's been my saving grace the past 2 years: making coworkers laugh so hard they tear up, redfaced with shock & shaking their heads at my goofy random dancing. The nicest thing I kept hearing on my last day was how much my smile and my humor and my weirdness--by their standards, I kept a shitload *cloaked*--will be missed.)

Awesome move Lickspittle...I hope it turns out well.

In 1994 when I was 24, I decided "Screw El Paso, TX, I'm moving!" Packed up all my records, my skateboard and some clothes in my green Ford Festiva, and drove up to Chicago with a handfull of money, and no job. I had some friends there, so I stayed with a girl friend's parents house for a month until I found an apartment, and got stuck at a crappy Pizza Hut job. After a few years, I left PH and wound up getting some warehouse job for a wine company, pulling orders and packing up shipments of wine, which I new nothing about. Fast forward 13 years later, and now I'm a "specialist" at the same wine company. But now I have an office inside that big warehouse and instead of pulling orders and packing shipments, I "inspect" all the incoming wine and make sure it's in proper condition to sell. I hope I don't ever lose this gig cause I have no college education, and don't want to go back to Pizza Hut.

I hope all works out for you...enjoy life is all.
MAFF

Maffish, thanks so much! I know a few people that I worked with were returning to school to get a degree in "General Studies" just in case the bottom fell out...I've got a degree but think it's fucked if a company doesn't value *work experience* , esp if it's at the same company...

I feel like my Take This Job...mood has quickly flipped to "Fuck yeah, Richmond. Fuck yeah" mood as I've found out that a friend of mine will be part of a quasi Death Piggy reunion (him & Dave Brockie) opening for GWAR at a BBQ less than 24 hours of our arrival...so it'll be a rapid fire crash course running into peeps I've not seen in 20+ years.

Oh hell yeah!!

Rad.

....so this is weird...my former sort of boss just texted me to see if I was excited about the move etc...What the? She barely spoke to me once I put in my notice & was totally passive aggressive for the rest of my time there. Why the hell would she contact me now??

People are weird. Normal mainstream people are especially weird.

Carolyn, thank you for reminding me why I'm so glad I quit....

I would take that as she's truly starting to see what she's going to be missing and what you've contributed.
It's a compliment and yes mainstream people are extremely wierd.
I've been in the corporate world for 18 years with the same company and my boss is scared of me.

At least he leaves me the F alone.

I also exist in the "people are afraid of me in the workplace" zone. Not the He's a scary looking thug kind, but the he knows a whole lot about things that I've never heard of kind. I enjoy that position because people who are worth actually investing time and energy in interaction generally seek me out to ask questions. People who don't ask questions are dullards. I hate feeling that I am not receiving an equitable return on my investment in a conversation or relationship with a person.

End of digression.

After a while that gets to me too. It is starting now actually. I try to communicate lots in our company, and it's always the same 10 people getting back to me. The other 150 people here just sit silently.

The fact that I'm responsible for HR in a call center - sorry: contact center - might have something to do with that, I think. If I do get a question, it's usually people bitching about taxes: beyond my control. It hardly gets interesting on a more personal level.

At the same time though, I've always maintained a Berlin Wall between professional and personal life. I don't let my job get to me, I mean, I'll put in what I believe is (more then) reasonable in effort and commitment (hell, I've been here 12 years now). But when I go home, I flick a switch in my head, changing to personal mode, and that's that. I do not like going for a drink after hours with colleagues. We have hardly ever anything in common.