I feel like celebrating

I feel like celebrating

I haven't had a day off since September of 2015. No weekends, no holidays, no sick days, no vacations. My mother passed away in 2020 and I worked from home for a week as the closest thing to bereavement leave I could take. I worked four days a week from the office and three days from home for most of the time I was there. The days at the office would normally be between 9 and 11 hours long, although more than a few were 12+ over the years. Working from home was a little easier, especially on the weekends. The best days, I only worked about 3-4 hours, split up between the morning and the afternoon, but that split made it nearly impossible to do anything "big" on weekends.

The nature of the position required someone to do it every single day, and over the years we tried to hire an assistant/backup so that I could train them and maybe let them take one or two days a week without my help/supervision, but every single one of them either quit or got themselves fired for stupid shit before we ever got to that point.

It's the best job I've ever had, which is sad because it didn't pay all that much, and no, it absolutely wasn't worth it. Think of how much money you would demand for a job that required you to work every single day NO MATTER WHAT. Cut it in half, and I probably still made less. Zero benefits aside from a modest profit sharing/retirement plan (everyone else in the company got a week of vacation per year they'd been with the company, up to a max of five weeks, but people rarely took them, and my "vacation" was working from home for a week once or twice a year).

I've been burnt out for longer than I can honestly remember.

I had thought about leaving to find something else plenty of times over the years, but the owner of this company took a huge risk on me when I first took on the job (and for the record, I took it on willingly, knowing at least in broad terms what it would mean) and I wanted to repay that faith he put in me by making sure I wasn't just leaving them holding the bag when I left. This was not a job I could quit on two weeks notice. Not without risking the entire company collapsing. Since I assumed I wouldn't be able to find a place that paid at least as much as I was making here, AND willing to give me at least a month to leave my current job, I just never bothered looking.

And I didn't want to tell my employer I was looking for something so that I could start the training/replacement process early, because I knew it would just add more stress and more hours to my already crushing schedule, and a small part of me was afraid that they'd just let me go as soon as other people knew how to do what I did, whether I had a new job lined up or not.

A friend of mine basically bullied me into applying for a job at his employer. They were willing to work with him on his start date because he was moving at the time, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It's kind of a dream job (compared to my last one, anyway): four ten hour shifts a week, at least one weekend day off guaranteed, full benefits, 32 paid days off a year, and the pay is almost exactly what I was making at this job, but as an entry level position with plenty of room to grow.

He wanted me to apply in December, but I worked in eCommerce. There was no way I could leave in the middle of the Christmas blitz. But then a new job listing went up in mid January and my buddy called me every day telling me to go for it, so I didn't have a chance to talk myself out of it.

To make an already too long story a bit shorter, they offered me the position on January 31st. They wanted me to start on the 14th but I told them that wouldn't be possible. The next training class didn't start until the first week of April, if I was willing to wait that long. The next day, I gave my notice and told them my first day at the new job was today, February 28th so they had the entire month of February to prepare for me going, and I would do everything in my power to help.

I've been busting my ass for the past four weeks, going into the office every day, even on weekends, doing my job as well as creating training materials for every part of my job, and for the past two weeks I've been training my (partial) replacement. Many of my duties have been disseminated to other people in the company because even they knew they weren't going to find someone else willing to work every single day.

I finished up the last of the training documents last night around 10pm.

This is the first time in six and a half years that I've woken up with nothing to do for the entire day. It doesn't feel real, and I'm kinda terrified I'm dreaming.

I have an entire month off before I start my new job. I have no idea what I'm gonna do with myself.

Anyway, just wanted to vent/celebrate a bit. Browsing Imgur during the brief lulls at work has been one of the few things keeping me sane, so consider this a bit of an appreciation post as well. Thanks for reading!