I Quit!

Yes, I really did it. I quit my job of 17 years yesterday–10/13/09 my first official day of freedom. I’m not scared…but if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous I’d be lying.

I quit without fanfare and I quit happy. I quit with ONE email and in the subject line I said; I Quit Effective Immediately.

I’m going to tell you a story. I have been working for Brunswick County School since 1992. I worked my way up as far as my education would let me go. I worked hard and I made pretty good money.

Around February or so of this year my friend asked me to be a character witness for her in a grievance she was filing. I said absolutely without hesitation. I had known my friend for almost 20 years; it was a no-brainer. She said now wait you may not want to when you find out who the grievance is against. She said it was against the superintendent of the school system; I answered again…yes I will be your character witness.

A few months later this grievance was finally heard by the board. And lo and behold a few weeks after that 1/2 of my friends witnesses were transferred out of the central office to different positions in the school system. Now I was one of those transferred–from a central office setting to a school setting and given another job on top of the job “they let me keep”. How nice of them. This was a clear retaliatory action; and I believe against the “whistle blowers” act; but the board didn’t care–they upheld all of these transfers.

There was no notice given; I happened to hear on the day of the board meeting that I was on the “hit list”. They didn’t give me the courtesy of notifying me; sitting me down after 17 years of good service–so did I feel that I owed them a notice? No!

Anyway, I was put into this new position PLUS still had to fulfill my other responsibilities; both of them being full-time jobs. The board wouldn’t hear me; the HR Director wouldn’t hear me…my boss wouldn’t hear me. There is probably a lawsuit here–but…

Anyway I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Last week I took the week off and actually went to the Dr’s and was put on anti-depressants! Now mind you I’ve never been in that position. Hell, I was depressed. My job was never-ending never get caught up–I couldn’t handle both positions and do either of them well. So I started back to work on Monday morning with a dread of even being there. On Tuesday I received several emails from my director saying give rights to this person; give rights to that person–jobs that I had been doing. And I thought I know where this is headed.

I called hubby and said, “Can I quit? Right now?” He said let’s talk about it tonight. I said o.k. then he sent me a text that said; “Walk right now!” And well I did.

Now that being said I know how folks feel when they say; “I knew if I didn’t make this decision my business was never going to go on to the next level.” You see I have worked online since 2003 of November. So almost 6 years to the month–I am able to quit. I started in January of this year with 2 Virtual Assistants and am now up to 9 people who help me with my business. So my business has grown and now it’s time for my income to double! I knew that if I continued to work on my business only from 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM I would never get it to the next level…so here I am!

Happily enjoying my freedom! I had to (taking from my friends words) give myself permission to quit. I had to have the mindset that it was finally time to take my business to the next level. My team is in place…and I’m ready to take on the world.

Who wants to join me on this incredible journey? Any takers?

In my next post I’ll tell you the story of my experience and what I’ve done to get here.