In the past few months, I've sort of left all of you hanging about a few threads in my life. Most of these still don't have a conclusion, but I thought I'd do a few updates.
1) My former boss is officially gone. I believe he has started his new job. In the meantime, I was debating whether or not to get him a gift. I did as almost everyone suggested in the comments, wrote him a thoughtful note, and slipped a $25 gift card to Starbucks inside of it. One day while I was walking the dog, I took it with me and slipped into his mailbox. He wrote me a text thanking me and we haven't been in contact since, although I suspect this will change soon enough (wait until we get to bullet point #4).
2) Way back in September, the owner of a yoga studio where I used to go posted an anti-vaccine, anti-mask post on Facebook. I had already purchased a 3-month pass earlier in the month, so I was on the hook for $75 for September, October, and November. I figured I would just let it lapse and that would be the end of it. Many of you said I should directly tell her why I was canceling, but I'm confrontation-averse, so I just let it go.
I was charged $75 in December and I emailed the owner right away to tell her I didn't want the pass anymore. She told me that it renews automatically and I had to give her a 30-day notice that I wanted to cancel! I was...very mad. So basically I've paid $300 for something I never used. *heavy sigh* I emailed her back that I didn't want to pay for the pass anymore and she never responded, but I'm hoping that's enough *notice.* If I'm charged in January, I'll certainly do a credit card chargeback.
3) Many of you have asked about Hannah the Dog's health and there's absolutely nothing good to report. She's had more frequent pain episodes and we've ended up giving her more painkillers than we had been doing in the previous months. She tried to puppy bow to one of her dog friends (Lucy, the Doberman who lives a few houses away) on a walk and let out a whimper right away. She seems to be in pain a lot.
We've been consulting with the specialists in this field (she's been seen by the neurologist and orthopedist), along with trips to see our regular vet, who is a personal friend of ours who spends hours doing research for us. It seems like we were really just lucky in the late-spring through summer when she wasn't having pain episodes - the neurologist seemed quite shocked that she wasn't a regular pain medication regime based on what came back in her most recent x-rays. Anyway, all the professionals are doing their best and we're just muddling along, hoping she gets better soon.
She does a lot of wondering around the house, not wanting to lay down. Her latest move is to put her head on our knee/chair and look at us with sad, sad eyes. She had been taking a lot of coaxing to get her to eat, but in the last few days, she has started eating again, so that's something, I guess. I'm contemplating getting her some sort of heated bed to maybe help the pain. Has anyone ever bought a heated dog bed?
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| Sad, sad eyes. Ears pinned back. All day long. My husband took this photo, so photo credit to him. |
4) I haven't written much about it here because it seems like whining, but I do not like my job. It's so bad that over Thanksgiving weekend, I was literally sobbing about it. I'm not great at it, I have a couple of mean girl co-workers who refuse to answer questions when I ask, and I desperately want to get back to a job in something I'm actually competent doing. So about a week ago, I applied for a job sort of on a whim. I stumbled across a remote position for a role I actually met every requirement for and I spent a small amount of time, thirty minutes max, tweaking my resume and writing a cover letter, and I have a phone interview next week. It's obviously low stakes because I have a job, but it was encouraging that I was able to get an interview so quickly. It's such a great environment for workers right now that no one should be working in a role they're unhappy in.
What's a good heated dog bed? What would it take for you to start looking for other jobs?
First, I'm so sorry my blog post caused anticipatory guilt. To clarify, my colleague that resigned was only about a month into the job (we both started our positions around the same time)! So I didn't know her well (she works in a completely different department, but one of her main responsibilities was handling one aspect of my job that I'm not qualified to complete - as in have absolute NO training in this field). Her position had been vacant for a long time, so I don't have a lot of hope it will get filled again quickly which just leaves me in a challenging position. But I hold NO ill will against her for resigning.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I'm so sorry you're in a miserable job. It sounds terrible and like you really need out. It is definitely an employee market right now, and I sincerely wish you all the best with the job interview. I hope, if it still feels right, you're able to make a move soon and feel renewed excitement about work. I've been working on a different long-term project (I have several different part-time jobs - long story) that I absolutely dread. Definitely induces tears sometimes. I'm on the cusp of potentially being able to let it go (I can't actually "quit" this job because it's a product I helped develop) and I'm beyond excited by the possibility. It's hard to live under ongoing job stress.
I'm so, so sorry Hannah's not feeling the best. The poor thing. I know you must feel helpless, but how wonderful she has such caring family to call home.
Ugh, I am sorry to hear you are not happy at your job. It's not complaining - it's keeping it real, which I much prefer! I can relate as I was in a horrible job prior to my current role. I would sit in the bathroom and cry sometimes! I had rude coworkers and it was just not a good work environment. I was so so so miserable. So I was thrilled when I was able to change jobs 5.5 years ago. That one year at that bad company was so hard on me, plus I was coming off a year in Charlotte, NC for a relocation that was basically forced... So those were some rough years. I hope your interview goes well! One benefit of covid is greater flexibility about where employees need to be located!!
ReplyDeleteAnd OMG about that yoga studio. I would be SO PISSED to have to give them an additional $75 on top of the 3 months of membership that you didn't use. Another friend told me about her yoga studio having a similar reaction to the pandemic/masks/vaccines. Ughhhhhhh.
Your poor doggie! I have never had a dog so I'm no help on the dog bed, but a heated bed in general sounds wonderful to me! :) My husband would HATE it! And I don't know what it would take for me to look for another job. I love my job, mostly because of the people I work with and my boss. So if I didn't work w/ this team, I would not be as happy!
If the job is stressing you that much, I definitely think you're right to look around. Can't hurt, and maybe you'll find a better fit! If you haven't looked at the Ask a Manager advice site, I do recommend it for learning to follow your instincts, job-wise.
ReplyDeleteI haven't bought a heated pet bed, but when I had an old, creaky cat, and he spent a lot of time on my bed looking out the window, I bought a heated mattress pad for the bed, and he did seem to appreciate it. So maybe heat would help Hannah! Poor thing. It's so hard to see them not doing well, and not be able to fix it.
No good comes from staying in a bad job and hey-o how convenient that your boss just left so you can use him as a reference without tipping off your current employer that you're heading for the door. The job market is great and remote work is standard now so there is even less reason to put up with a bad job than there was before. I spent a lot of time venting about my old job on my blog so I won't repeat it here but life is so much better since I moved on.
ReplyDelete<3 to Hannah.
I'm so sorry you don't like your job; I hope that the interview will be a fruitful one and that you can move on!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the yoga studio - that is really crappy that it was an auto-renew. Ugh. I'm sorry you had to pay so much for something like that.
Thanks for the updates! I actually had been wondering about a couple of these things. So sad for Hannah! And you- it must be heartbreaking to see her so uncomfortable. I'm not a dog person so not an expert- but I would totally buy the heated bed. It might help.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely should find another job! Sobbing over Thanksgiving weekend is a sign you need to get out. I remember my sister had a job she hated so much, she would start to get depressed on SATURDAY MORNING about having to go back to work on Monday. Life is too short to be that miserable. Interestingly, this was also a job she felt she wasn't great at, and had a mean coworker. So... there's other jobs out there. Fingers crossed this one works out for you, and if it doesn't I definitely think you should keep looking. Good luck!
I am sorry that you are so miserable at your job. You should not spend Thanksgiving week crying! That sounds awful and I'm sorry it's gotten that bad, especially with the mean girl coworkers. Coworkers can really make or break a job. I'm 9 days late to this post so I'm not sure how the job interview went, but I hope it went well or that you have lots of more interviews lined up. It's a hard time of year to be job hunting but hopefully you find that right fit for you.
ReplyDeletePoor Hannah. I would imagine that a heated bed would feel really good for her! I'm not sure if it's joint pain or internal pain? I just know that a heating pad always feels so good when I'm dealing with sciatica. Is nobody able to figure out what meds will help her? Or not able to understand exactly what's causing her pain? Poor lady.
I'm even later than Stephany so I will keep this short, and just echo what everyone else has said. No one - NO ONE - should be that miserable at their job that they cry over a long weekend. I sincerely hope something either has worked out already, or will soon. Fingers crossed.
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