Hey all!
Mostly just lurking here because I am not sure where I quite fall on the “antiwork” spectrum and while I may not agree with some of your views I think its very important to hear them.
That being said I wanted to share a quick story that seems like it would jive (jibe?) well with this crew.
Quit my job of over a decade to go to a smaller, startup with a better culture/better everything. Was pretty nervous since this was my first time resigning, and it was my first job out of college. My boss, at the time, had once been a peer, then personal supervisor and had risen up to run our entire office.
Told him I was resigning, told him why….and he was calm and cool. Said no big deal, he wasn't going to try and counter. Then he told me “Don't worry, you are a cog in a machine, we'll just replace you with someone else.”
You can imagine how that stung, since I'd given over a decade of my life here and thought I was a good company man.
Things changed when he asked when my last day was. I had been expecting to get frog marched out of there as was typical, but I had prepared. Told him I had already done a lot of the work to transfer my business to someone else, and five days should be more than enough.
He exploded. A litany of expletives, demands that I stay for THREE weeks.
I wish I had been clever enough to throw the “cog” thing back in his face, but I kept my cool and gave a very bland “I'll see what I can do.” In fact, I could, and would, do nothing since I had spent the last week setting myself, and them, for what I thought would be immediate execution. Transferred all my work, let all my clients know and tied up all loose ends, and basically hung out for 3 of the 5 remaining days than bounced to a job that has completely revitalized me.